


The Broken Vial

by GeeLiz_98



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Druids, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Fluff, Humor, Internalized Homophobia, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Multi, Witch Curses, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-07-04 14:44:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 79,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15843435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeeLiz_98/pseuds/GeeLiz_98
Summary: Upon travelling to a small English village, famous for its dabblings in all things spiritual and magical, Chanyeol gets far more than he bargained for when curiosity draws him towards a curious Wicca shop. From his very first visit to the curious shop - The Broken Vial - Chanyeol becomes deeply rooted in the lives of the shop's inhabitants, the mysterious Byun Baekhyun, in particular. The spritely father with a beauty almost other-worldly is hiding a secret which could change Chanyeol's world forever.





	1. Part One - Dust In The Wind

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! :) This is my first time writing any kind of full-length...anything fictional, so I don't know how good it will end up being :') This whole thing started when I got tired of writing essays about the law (which consumes my entire literary mind and may have contributed to a very wordy prose for which I apologise haha!) and went on the hunt for story ideas. Well, a trip to Glastonbury, a visit to a Witchcraft museum, and a whole lot of research later, I birthed this story child...well, half of it. This is a work-in-progress, as it were. Consider it a loaf of bread baking in an oven; it isn't ready for eating yet but the delicious smell is enough to get you excited for what is to come!   
> Anyway, I'll shut up and get this fic finished! And to you, dear reader, grab a cup of tea (or a beverage of your choosing) and get comfy. I would like you to at least be comfortable while you read this, even if the whole thing appears to be going up in flames!! :-* Happy Reading!

_I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone_

 

_All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity_

 

_Dust in the wind_

 

_All they are is dust in the wind_

 

_Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea_

 

_All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see_

 

_Dust in the wind_

 

_All we are is dust in the wind_

 

_Oh, ho, ho_

 

_Now, don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky_

 

_It slips away_

 

_And all your money won't another minute buy_

 

_Dust in the wind_

 

_All we are is dust in the wind_

 

 

_All we are is dust in the wind_   
_Dust in the wind_

 

_Everything is dust in the wind_

 

_Everything is dust in the wind_

 

_The wind_

 

_-_ Dust in the Wind - Kansas 


	2. Part One - Misadventure

 

 

“Where the actual shit are we, Park Chanyeol?” someone groaned from the backseat of the van, the first sign of life back there for the past few hours.

The old rental was bouncing along a narrow, residential road, its worn-out engine making awful moaning sounds as it did so. The suspension on the poor girl had given out way before her current occupants had gotten their hands on her, and with every pothole Chanyeol forced the vehicle over, all five of the young men inside bounced aggressively in their seats.

“Just took a small detour, no big deal,” Chanyeol replied cheerfully. He felt it was a great shame to waste their final few days in England staring at yet another distastefully decorated B&B or losing another night to the bottom of a pint glass. Of course, he hadn’t consulted his then-sleeping travel companions, from whom his glee elicited a communal groan.

“Oh! What a surprise? The world’s most enthusiastic sight-seer has once again taken the liberty to _deprive me of sleep,”_ complained Jongdae, quite possibly the least enthusiastic sight-seer. He would not have lamented had the entire month on ‘Old Blighty’ been spent conducting an intense pub crawl.

“Come on, Dae,” Minseok sleepily interjected, eyes still closed, as he grabbed around searching for his boyfriend in the ‘dark’, “you know how excited Yeol is about the trip, it’s only fair to let him have an explore while we’re here.”

Jongdae just responded by rolling his eyes in a huff. He sulkily turned to stare out of the van window but didn’t hesitate to manoeuvre his hand into Minseok’s; he might need Chanyeol to think he was pissed, but he needed his boyfriend to know that lack of sleep was what brought out the grump in him.

“That’s all well and good,” came another voice from the very back of the van, muffled since the owner of said voice – Sehun - was laying across the entire bench, his face pressed into the chipped leather upholstery (much to the dismay of Jongin who found himself crushed against the window), “but pray tell all-mighty wheelman, where exactly is ‘here’?” The sarcasm practically dripped out of Sehun.

The question was on everyone’s mind, becoming increasingly more pressing as the scene around them unfolded. Rows of houses stood either side of them, their windows reflecting the harsh midday sun. Very few people littered the streets, but in their place stood an array of scarecrows of all shapes and sizes. The front lawn of every other home had one proudly erected.

Sehun – now sat upright with a grimace on his face - directed everyone’s attention to one dressed as a wizard of some kind, “you can’t tell me that isn’t weird.” Everyone but Chanyeol nodded in agreement.

“Hey, guys! That one looks like Chanyeol,” Jongin was referring to an especially tall scarecrow, towering as high as the second storey of the house, with an atrociously messy mop of straw for hair.

Jongdae cackled at this, turning to give Jongin a high-five, which earned him a slap on the arm from Minseok. Chanyeol’s cheerful demeanour faltered slightly at this and he self-consciously tried to pat down his hair, before opting to laugh along instead. It was only a joke after all.

“Ignore them, Yeol,” Minseok was being kind as ever, “they’re just being brats. Where are we, then? This place looks pretty cool.”

They were driving up towards a town now, the road widening out as they merged into more traffic than they had seen for a while.

“We’re in Glastonbury,” Chanyeol was blatantly trying not to sound excited.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jongdae leaned forward in his seat, “as in the music festival? Chanyeol, don’t fuck with me!”

“No, sorry, Dae. The festival is held near here, though.”

“Ah, sucks,” Jongdae didn’t hide his disappointment as he slumped backwards, but his interest was piqued by the discussion that followed.

“Hang on, I read about this place in one of those travel guides you made us read,” Jongin remembered

“You actually read those!? Guys you really do care!” Chanyeol was never far from resembling a child on Christmas morning at any given time.

“Yeah I read it while having a shit the other day,” so much for sparing his friend’s feelings, “isn’t this the really weird town with all of the weird magic and spiritualist shops?”

Chanyeol nodded, though he didn’t need to because the town they were now within spoke for itself. The sight that met the four sets of eyes was unlike anything they had ever seen before: they drove up to a busy courtyard adorned with flowers in myriad colours which looked beautiful in the sun, in every direction stood gothic buildings, many of which were shops specialising in crafts you would be pressed to find anywhere else. They passed a bookshop specialising in metaphysics and esotericism, shops selling mystical items, spiritual goods, shops selling the most exquisite jewellery, and many unconventional clothes stores.

What stood out the most, however, was the people. The folks going about their business could not have been more eclectic. From young women dressed in Edwardian-esque gowns to old men walking around barefoot, there was a clear culture of ‘anything goes’ in this small town.

“Woah, this place is pretty cool,” Sehun had his head literally out of the window now, admiring a small alleyway which was decorated with statues of various mythical creatures, leading to an opening which undoubtedly had even more.

“No need to sound so surprised, guys,” Chanyeol had finally found a carpark, thankfully in the shade to provide temporary respite from the beating heat, “this place is literally legendary. It has medieval buildings and all sorts. The burial site of King Arthur is just up that hill, as well.”

Chanyeol and the others all jumped out of the van, Minseok stretching out the muscles in his legs he feared may have seized up on the journey. They had been driving for hours down from Bath, their last stop, and he was desperate for a walk. That doesn’t mean he didn’t panic a little when he saw the hill Chanyeol was pointing at; it was a practically vertical incline and he didn’t fancy hiking up it in such heat. He didn’t say anything, mind you.

Jongdae didn’t have any qualms about voicing his displeasure, though.

“No way, Yeol,” he crossed his wrists dramatically, “no more crumbling walls, no more medieval pots, and certainly no more cathedrals. I’m not having it. It is so _boring_ , Yeol.”

He turned to Minseok for moral support, only to receive a gentle shrug. Upon turning to Sehun and Jongin he only received more of the same.

“For once, Dae, this place looks like it’s worth sticking around for,” Jongin admitted, “it isn’t very often you get to visit an actual magic shop.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“Besides,” Chanyeol went on, “it isn’t a cathedral this time. It’s an abbey.”

“God¸ Chanyeol, you had me at magic shop but you just lost me,” Jongdae rolled his eyes until he met his boyfriend’s gaze and conceded, “GOD! Fine! Just let me have a piss first.” He skulked off in the direction of the public toilets, leaving a certain smug Chanyeol in his wake.

 

After an hour or so of wandering around in amazement, unsure of where to start exploring, the group of young men found themselves sunbathing on the expansive grass of the abbey grounds. The crumbled ruins cast obscure shadows over their lazy bodies, the surrounding trees blowing pink blossoms around them.

“I’m going to miss this,” Sehun spoke quietly, as though his voice would ripple so much so that the peace and quiet was destroyed. He was met with a solemn silence in reply. They would all miss this.

They had planned the group around a year ago whilst gathered around a rickety table outside a small bar. Four bottles of alcohol down each, and without inhibitions it had dawned on them that they had only one summer remaining before they would be separated for the foreseeable future.

Sehun had recently signed up to train with the police force after leaving university so would be moving away from their small village to the big city, Jongin was moving to Paris upon completing his degree to study at a dance school. As for Jongdae and Minseok, they had plans to ‘elope’ as Jongdae eloquently put it; possibly to America, possibly to Europe. All they knew was that they didn’t want to stay put. Only Chanyeol would remain, without anything to tie him down but also without anything beckoning him to leave.

The trip was his idea. While his life stayed the same, the same streets to keep him company for the remainder of his life, he couldn’t help but feel as though his friends’ new lives would be so fast-paced that he would be left in the dust. The least he could ask for was some memories to tie him over until they –hopefully – gathered together once more.

They lay in silence for a little while longer until a gentle sniffle broke the silence and everyone bolted up to find the source of the sound.

“Oh, Chanyeol,” Minseok’s voice sounded soft and endearing upon realising whose tears he heard, which only made Chanyeol feel worse. Minseok shuffled over to wrap his friend in a tight hug.

“I just-,” _sniff, “_ love you all so much-,” _hiccup,_ “and I don’t want you to leave, which is so selfish of me, I know! This trip has just been so _nice_ and I never want it to end!”

He practically lost it then and snot poured everywhere, and his tears left Minseok’s shoulder sodden.

“Ah, come here you big baby!” Jongdae latched onto Chanyeol from behind, forming a Chanyeol sandwich with Minseok, “we’ll miss you a shit ton, too! And I know I tease you about the churches and Roman castles- “

“Hastings was a fort,” _sniff._

“Shut up, Yeol. I’m trying to be nice, here. What I was trying to say was: you planned a really nice trip and we’ve all had a great time. We’ll remember the month literally forever and it’s all thanks to you,” he offered a gentle smile for quite possibly the first time in his life, “and, besides, you can definitely come and visit Minnie and I one day. Our not-yet-existent cats and five kids would love to meet their uncle Chanyeol.”

“FIVE!?” Minseok looked awfully pale. Not that anyone seemed to notice his unadulterated horror.

“Dae is right, Yeol,” Jongin added, “this isn’t the end for us four. It is just the beginning,” he smiled his dazzling smile and joined in on the bone-crushing hug.

Sehun joined shortly after, with a little too much force, causing the whole group to topple over in a pile of limbs, erupting in bubbly laughter. Even Chanyeol forgot he was sobbing his heart out only seconds ago.

“God, you’re such a bunch of cheese balls,” Sehun choked out in between laughs, struggling to sit up from guffawing so aggressively.

After a few more minutes passing in an equally hysterical fashion, the four men eventually decided to head out towards some shops for the remainder of the day, filled with excitement imagining what they may find.

 

A few hours, and an obscene number of shops later, the group found themselves in the alleyway Sehun had spotted earlier in the day. He had been correct in his suspicions that there may be even more ornaments, but he hadn’t noticed the small stores in the alcove. There was even a snug pub tucked away in the courtyard which the odd tourist passed in and out of.

Given that they hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the morning, everyone but Chanyeol went into the pub to buy a round of drinks and some food, while the remaining man continued to look around. He was intently inspecting wall hangings of suns and moons with faces carved into them when an unfamiliar voice startled him.

“Can I help you, young man?” He whipped around to come face-to-face with a middle-aged woman. She was shorter than him but incredibly intimidating. Her fiery orange hair fell far past her hips, blowing gently in the summer breeze, catching the sun, while the emerald summer dress floated in a similar way. Her piercing eyes which were framed by freckles and wrinkles (the only feature which gave away her age) and seemed to bore right into Chanyeol’s core. He shivered but not from the breeze.

“Erm…no, thank you, I am just waiting for my friends.”

She smiled softly and nodded but did not leave. “Do you know what they are, young man?” she was referring to the suns and moons.

“No, I’m afraid not,” he responded, “but I like the smiling suns.”

She pondered for a moment, still smiling, her eyes following Chanyeol’s gaze, “yes, I like those, too. No one is really sure where they come from. Some think they were made to represent the gods, or the Roman Sun God, Helios, maybe. I think they are just an attempt made by humans to understand a life force we all depend upon – the sun – by personifying it. It is hard to imagine that the one thing that gives us all life doesn’t have any life within it at all. It is daunting to think that it could rip all life away in a heartbeat. By giving it life, we feel less intimidated by it. No?”

Chanyeol stood dumbfounded, only half understanding but at the same time, feeling as though what the woman had said made perfect sense. He could only nod in response, however.

“I see why you are drawn towards the suns, though. You have a lot of sunshine within you, I can tell. You are a very kind soul.”

“How could you tell that just by looking at me?”

“Your face, of course. Your thoughts practically shine out of you like sunbeams. Your eyes are glowing, my sweet.”

Chanyeol would never admit it, but his cheeks flushed bright red at that comment.

The woman looked like she was deep in thought for a moment before she reformed her token smile and beckoned for Chanyeol to follow her. “Come with me, I want to show you something. She grabbed hold of his arm very lightly and led him towards one of the shops, which was actually no more than a rickety wooden door with an equally worn out sign above it which read ‘The Broken Vial’. She gently pushed the door which seemed to blow open with much more force than she applied and pulled him across the threshold. As she did so, Chanyeol felt warmth fill him, as though someone had poured lukewarm water into his chest. He had to admit, it felt rather pleasant.

For a minute or so, he couldn’t make out anything inside because it was so dimly lit. All he could make out was the green and red spots filling his eyes from the bright light outside. When his eyes adjusted, he could only gasp at what greeted him.

The shop was honestly tiny which made it appear incredibly crowded and cluttered. To his right were half a dozen bookshelves lined with nick nacks: some ornaments like the ones out in the courtyard, some candles inscribed with languages indiscernible to Chanyeol, incense burners, bottles of herbal remedies, and various other piles of miscellaneous items like dream catchers and statues of Buddha in his numerous forms.

In the centre of the shop in front of the counter sat barrels of crystals, mood rings, and runes carved out of wood or metal. There was also a cabinet of necklaces; some with ying yang symbols, some with trees of life, and others with suns and moons like the ones outside. On the other wall was a monstrosity of a bookshelf with books old and new, written in languages contemporary and old, spell books, spiritualist books, books containing old Celtic folk tales. From the ceiling hung cloths of silk, fairy lights and bells intertwined within them.

It looked like something out of a fairy tale.

Chanyeol was taking in a deep breath in an attempt to discern the scent of the smoke billowing out of a small wooden incense box on the counter when he heard pattering feet on the wooden floor and the voice of a child.

“Daddy, daddy!” the shrill voice cried, “Auntie Veronica is back!”

Then the owner of the voice burst out of a doorway behind the counter, getting tangled in the bead curtain covering the alcove in their excitement. A young girl, dressed for the summer in a pretty yellow sundress, with blonde hair tied in a neat fish tale plait ran to the redheaded woman – Veronica, apparently - and grabbed onto her legs tightly.

Veronica merely smiled, nowhere near as brightly before, and detached the young girl from her legs.

“Rhoslyn! Come back here!” came another voice from the back of the shop, more footsteps accompanied the panicked voice, “you know you shouldn’t go to the front of the shop without daddy!” Then a young, slightly flustered young man emerged from behind the curtain and made his way towards the girl, not bothering to acknowledge anyone else. “Come back into the living room, Rhoslyn, please. You can see Auntie Veronica later when the shop is closed.”

He fussed over the girl, almost as though she had just entered a war zone unattended and, when he was satisfied she was completely fine, he let out a deep breath.

Veronica just scoffed at him, “daddy?” she sounded rather disgusted at this. It was as though the young man hadn’t noticed anyone else was with him until that moment, least not Chanyeol whom he glanced over briefly before giving Veronica a withering glare.

“Not in front of Rhoslyn, Vee,” he pleaded, “it isn’t fair on her.”

Veronica just rolled her eyes, as well as her shoulders in an attempt to recompose herself. She then laughed heartily. _She must have been joking_ , Chanyeol decided. Not that he understood the joke. He wasn’t entirely sure the other man had found it too funny, either.

“Daddy? Can you please, please, please read me a fairy story? The one in your special language with the pretty pictures!” Her eyes glowed with hope and she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.

Her father sighed sadly and shook his head, “you know I can’t, my little cherub. Daddy is busy. Ask me again later before I tuck you into bed. Then I will read it to you,” he smiled gently and kissed her forehead as though she were a flower whose petals may fall off at the slightest touch.

“Listen to your daddy, Rhoslyn,” Veronica interjected, staring into the girl’s gaze with the same pointed look she’d given Chanyeol, “go and sit in the living room for a while. I need to borrow him.”

With that, Rhoslyn obediently nodded and walked out of the shop front much more calmly than she had entered. The young girl’s father gave Veronica another pointed look to which she just shrugged before he stood up.

“What is it you need me for?”

Veronica turned towards Chanyeol then and pointed at him, as though that would explain everything. When both men responded with blank stares, she rolled her eyes and carried on, “I would like you to give Chanyeol here a palm reading.”

“A what now!?” The young man looked disgusted, “and _who_ for that matter?”

The young man turned to face Chanyeol, his eyes not giving anything away as he gave him the once over. He didn’t seem at all phased by the man in front of him, something that could not be said for Chanyeol.

The young man was a curious fellow. He was of a small build with Chanyeol towering way above him. His hair was jet black, and his eyes were not far from being the same, no colour could be seen in them apart from the odd speck of gold as they reflected the lights on the ceiling. He also had a very beautiful face, his lips were so dainty and small beauty spots dotted the skin around his eyes, nose, and lips. It wasn’t until he spoke that Chanyeol stopped staring at him.

“Okay then, Chanyeol. I guess I’m giving you a palm reading,” he shrugged, “follow me.”

 

  

He followed behind hesitantly, unsure as to what he may be met with on the other side of the door, and he was far from being disappointed.

They entered a small hallway first with wooden flooring and Arabian carpets scattered across it. The walls were dotted with hangings depicting all kinds of unusual figures, some looked human-like, some looked otherworldly. He didn’t fail to notice some elegant writing over one of the four door frames, written in a language he didn’t understand.

The young man told him to hang back one second while he stuck his head through one of the doors, which let out the faint sound of a television as he did so. Presumably, this was the living room and, when satisfied with what he found on the other side, he closed it behind him.

“Come on then,” he said as though he was being mildly inconvenienced, “I reckon the kitchen should be clear enough for us to sit down.” Then he opened yet another door revealing a far from tidy kitchen. Books were scattered all over the counter and dining table and the hob was filled with pans of strange-smelling liquids.

“Ah, shit!” The small man gathered all of the books off the table in one go and flung them down into the sink, seemingly unbothered as to whether they’d get ruined, “bloody Yixing. Again! I don’t mind him using the kitchen but I just wish he’d clean-up for once, you know?”

Chanyeol did not know. He didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but he nodded anyway out of politeness.

The other man sighed softly and smiled kindly, suggesting to Chanyeol that he wasn’t completely put out by his presence and offered him a seat.

“Sorry, how awfully rude of me. Please take a seat. I am Baekhyun, by the way,” he reached out to shake Chanyeol’s hand, “this place has been like a complete madhouse today! I get treated like the resident housekeeper while everyone else just goes about their business, making a mess of the place, piling up the laundry basket! Tea?”

Only just noticing he had been asked a question, Chanyeol nodded, “erm…yes please.”  


“We only have Chamomile, I’m afraid,” he stood on his tiptoes to reach into a high cupboard. Chanyeol almost considered helping him out but didn’t need to since the entire basket of tea bags fell onto Baekhyun’s head. “Whoops! Lucky I only have bags in and not leaves else that would have gone _everywhere._ It seems Kyungsoo has had all of the biscuits, as well,” he looked genuinely put out by that as he pottered about frantically, boiling a kettle on the stove (moving about three pans in the process).

Chanyeol just sat watching, unsure of how to make conversation, even more unsure as to why he was in this man’s kitchen in the first place. He was just about to stand up and offer to get out of Baekhyun’s hair when a mug of tea was placed in front of him. Baekhyun flopped down on the chair in front of him and stared straight into his face for a few uncomfortable seconds before gesturing for Chanyeol to hold out his hands.

He furrowed his eyebrows as though in deep thought, running his fingers across the lines of Chanyeol’s palms, who could only hope that it wasn’t too obvious how clammy his hands were. Given the close proximity to a complete stranger, who was incredibly handsome at that, would make anyone rather nervous. Chanyeol was just admiring the other man’s beautiful hands (why was he doing that exactly? He was never normally a fan of hands) when Baekhyun’s voice made him jump out of his skin.

“As I suspected,” he said like he had just confirmed the most obvious thing in the world. He continued to trace the lines on Chanyeol’s hands no longer looking pensive. In fact, his face was completely unreadable for a while but the smile he formed a few seconds later didn’t reach his eyes. He looked almost forlorn. As he dropped Chanyeol’s hand gently, he laughed softly, yet sadly, “you are a good man, Chanyeol.”

“You don’t sound happy to discover that,” Chanyeol remarked, noting Baekhyun’s odd behaviour. Of course, he’d never met the complete stranger but something definitely seemed off. Chanyeol subtly searched the face of the man in front of him for some kind of clue but didn’t want to make him too uncomfortable. In typical Chanyeol fashion, he decided to fill the empty silence.

“How can you possibly know that, though?” He asked, hoping that Baekhyun didn’t notice the suspicious tone in his voice; the last thing he wanted to do was accuse him of being some kind of conman, “I mean, Veronica said the same thing outside and I don’t – “

“Bloody Veronica!” Baekhyun leaped out of his seat in huff, absentmindedly moving over to the hob to re-boil the kettle despite the fact that Chanyeol had barely touched his tea (it had a very overpowering taste. Although, Baekhyun hadn’t yet had a drink himself. His hands shook like leaves as he aggressively handled the kettle and the tea bags. He was absolutely fuming about something unbeknownst to Chanyeol, and he turned to lean his back against a clear area on the counter, taking a deep breath to calm down. He looked up at Chanyeol shyly.

“Sorry,” he sounded sheepish, “she’s been getting in my hair a little bit today. Old Witch.” He laughed at his own words but he didn’t sound at all amused.

Chanyeol didn’t want to pry so instead asked, “Isn’t that insult a bit outdated. I know Veronica seems old – well, not old per se just…a witch? Bit harsh.”

“You don’t know the half of it, my friend,” he smiled genuinely then, at some inside joke Chanyeol clearly wasn’t in on, “you want to know how I figured it out, I’m guessing? How I know all about who you are by looking at your hands?” He crossed his arms over his chest waiting for an answer, the sound of the kettle beginning to whistle the soundtrack to Chanyeol’s forming questions.

“Yeah. Obviously, I’m not saying you are right about me – I’m not one to toot my own horn…”

“Well, in that case, it seems as though I was right about you then,” Baekhyun shrugged, “carry on. I want to hear what you think first.” He started to brew tea in a pot then, turning his back to the room.

“I just mean, you seemed so sure. ‘This is what he is like.’ It was almost instant, but you only met me twenty minutes ago. I barely said a word. You didn’t even look me in the eye. I always thought palm readings were just an old wives’ tale, honestly. Next, you’re going to look at the tea leaves in my mug and tell me I will become a billionaire or something.”

Baekhyun turned around then, clearly laughing and clearly doing so a _t_ Chanyeol. He hadn’t poured the tea, merely placed a cosy over the pot. _Odd,_ thought Chanyeol.

“I’d have a hard job considering I used a tea bag,” he looked smug, Chanyeol felt stupid, “and that really is an old wives’ tale. You can’t tell someone’s fortune through a completely random spattering of tea in a mug. That’s just nonsense.”

“And reading someone’s hands isn’t complete nonsense? Are you having me on here?” Chanyeol was teasing him but Baekhyun rose to the challenge.

“Touche, Chanyeol Park,” he quipped, “you’re a cheeky one! Wait here. I want to show you something.”

He flitted out of the room, leaving the door ajar slightly. Chanyeol was left in the eerie silence of the kitchen but, as he craned his neck to nosily look at the books and papers scattered about the place in the comfort of his privacy, he noted the sound of the television next door flowing through the crack, as well as the living room door shutting gently. Baekhyun seemed to be an incredibly caring father but Chanyeol couldn’t fathom why he would need to be so vigilant in what was surely his own home.

Baekhyun bounced back into the room then and dropped another book in front of Chanyeol. It was an incredibly worn out book, bound in fading brown leather, entitled ‘Chirology’. Chanyeol leafed through it gently, taking in the incredibly complex drawings which almost bridged the point of being anatomical drawings you may see in a medical textbook. They were incredibly detailed and left the man completely baffled. He never was good at science and the likes, not to mention that he loathed reading and this book wasn’t without dense text.

Baekhyun sensed this and retrieved the book, flicking through to a specific page. This contained just one drawing with very basic labels.

“Here,” he pointed at three large lines on the palm, “are the heart line, the head line, and the life line. Lines of different lengths tell you different things about a person: they tell you what kind of thinker they are, their temperament, how empathetic they are and so on and so forth.”

“That’s it then?” Chanyeol wasn’t convinced, “surely the lines on my hands are just as random as clumps of leaves in a teacup, are they not?”

Baekhyun shut the book and rolled his eyes, “such a cynic, Mr. Park. Why can’t you just let a bit of fantasy into your mortal existence? Besides, do you seriously not think your hands have some relation to the life you lead?”

Chanyeol didn’t really know how to respond to that. He had never been one to believe in magic, or in fortunes. He often read his horoscope in the morning paper on the train to university but that was mostly to confirm in his mind that it was all pure drivel. Baekhyun himself had said that tea leaf fortunes were a con so how was this any different?

Almost as though he had read Chanyeol’s mind, Baekhyun grabbed his hands and rolled them over in his own.

“For starters, I can tell that you are a musician from the rough skin on your fingers. I can tell that you have spent some time frolicking in a field this morning from the grass stains on your nails – nice weather for it, no? – and I can tell that you’re an anxious person from the awful state of your nails.” 

Trying not look offended or self-conscious about that, Chanyeol decided he would have a go if it was that simple. He took Baekhyun’s own hands and pulled them towards his eyes, causing the young man to jump, his eyes widening at the sudden closeness. After apologising, Chanyeol squinted as he inspected the hands closely. They were honestly quite bizarre. The skin on his hands was inexplicably smooth, not a single callous in sight. Even a single vein couldn’t be seen on Baekhyun’s hands or wrists. The only sign of life on the hands was a botched paint job on a few of his nails. The nail varnish was still quite sticky and pressed with tiny fingerprints.

“HA! I can tell that you are a dad because a child has painted your nails,” Chanyeol said proudly, not letting go of Baekhyun’s hands.

“Wow,” the sarcasm that followed could have given Sehun a run for his money, “would you like a job?”

“Whatever!” Chanyeol bounced Baekhyun’s hands up and down in frustration, “that still doesn’t explain how you know what goes on in my head, you know!”

Baekhyun shrugged, “I had a hunch.”

“What!? Rubbish!” He was only joking but he was also getting a bit suspicious, “And I suppose you knowing my surname was ‘just a hunch’ as well?”

The other man let his hands go limp in Chanyeol’s hands and his face fell completely. He looked a bit nauseous.

“Yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice,” Chanyeol continued to tease but the other man didn’t find it funny, “I suppose you conmen are pretty good at doing a good old Google search. Fair play. I suppose it keeps you in business.”

Baekhyun’s eyes darted between their two sets of hands for a few seconds, him clearly looking a bit panicked. _Caught him red-handed_ , Chanyeol thought, a little less unsettled than he was before, and then Baekhyun just laughed, tightening his grip on Chanyeol’s hands.

“You caught me!” He chirped before whispering, “but don’t tell anyone. I’ve got two whole mouths to feed.”

The two sat there for a little while longer, not saying anything. Baekhyun was deep in thought and Chanyeol was just looking at Baekhyun’s hands again, completely baffled by them. Baekhyun must have moisturised an awful lot. Chanyeol was about to ask him about his skincare regime when the silence was broken by the bead curtain out the front rattling and the kitchen door opening.

A young man entered the room and stood in the doorway. He was of short build and possibly the most ordinary looking person Chanyeol had seen all day, quite the shock in such a vibrant town. Chanyeol was inspecting the basket of food in the man’s hands when he suddenly remembered he was still holding onto Baekhyun’s hands and dropped them as though they were charged with electricity.

Baekhyun was completely unperturbed by the fact that they had been caught just idly staring at each other as though they were closely acquainted, but did pull a face at Chanyeol. It was quite shitty, Chanyeol supposed, when a guy didn’t want to be seen holding hands with him in front of other people but it wasn’t like that. Chanyeol reminded himself mentally that he wasn’t ashamed, he just didn’t want to cause trouble for Baekhyun. Baekhyun stood up anyway and took the basket away from the other man.

“Hey, Soo. You’re right on time. I just boiled the kettle to make you some tea but I had to use bags.” He set the basket down and went about pouring the tea, once again failing to pour one for himself. It was such a hot day he must have been on the verge of shrivelling up.

“Yeah, I know,” the other man responded, “Yixing said he put some more leaves in the basket. He won’t be coming by tonight, by the way. It’s absolute pandemonium over at his shop today. I didn’t think I’d ever get free. Made a ton of money reading fortunes, though so we’ll be eating good tonight! Well, not you I sup-“

“Oh, Soo!” Baekhyun cut him off in a panic, “I forgot to say. Chanyeol is here. Chanyeol came for a _palm reading_.” He emphasised his last words, almost as though he was communicating something only the new arrival would understand. “The seat by the window is free, though.”

It would be wrong for Chanyeol to say he wasn’t confused by the exchange. Of course Chanyeol was there. The entire six foot of him with his mop of a haircut. Quite noticeable. It was also blatantly obvious that the seat in front of Chanyeol was vacant, too. Ignoring this, Chanyeol reached out to shake the other man’s hand.

“Hi, there! I’m Chanyeol. And you are?”

“Kyungsoo,” the other man stated, not reaching to shake Chanyeol’s hand, which he just left hanging there in thin air, starting to feel a bit rejected.

As Baekhyun walked over to bring Kyungsoo’s tea and saw the scene before him, he giggled a little, once again at Chanyeol’s expense, “Kyungsoo is blind, Chanyeol. He can’t see you.”

 _Oh._ Baekhyun placed the mug down and pushed it carefully towards Kyungsoo’s hands, ensuring he had hold of it before sitting back in his seat.

“Yeah I am,” Kyungsoo said matter of factly, “so you may as well put your arm down.”

Chanyeol did as he was told and went to apologise for possibly causing offense before Kyungsoo stopped him, “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. I get enough pity to last me a lifetime elsewhere I do not need to appease your guilt in my own damn kitchen.”

“B-but how did you know I was- “

“Soo here is very perceptive,” Baekhyun pointed out.

_I’ll say._

They just sat there in silence for a bit then. Chanyeol thought he should probably leave. He was getting close to outstaying his welcome and three really did seem like a crowd in such a small kitchen. Besides, it was probably getting late. Surely the two men would like their kitchen back? Not to mention the fact that his friends were probably waiting for him.

The problem was, he never was well acquainted with social graces and had absolutely no idea how to leave. He was starting to get a little stressed out, weighing up his options: a) just get up and go or b) wait for a sign from the gods. Then there was the question of whether he needed to pay for his palm reading. He had been forced into it but, as Baekhyun said, he has two mouths to feed.

Thankfully, Kyungsoo broke the silence before Chanyeol reached utter freak out mode, “so, what brings you here then, Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol gave him a brief explanation. He said he had read about Glastonbury and thought the town sounded completely fascinating so brought his friends along to explore the place. Kyungsoo seemed quite interested by this, explaining that he knew Glastonbury was rife with tourists at all times – his friend Yixing’s bookshop was a particular hotspot, apparently – but he went on to say that the shop they were in then was normally only frequented by locals.

“Of course,” he said, “we get the odd tourist here, mainly those who are very invested in all things spiritualist, or possibly people who practice some form of Wicca who need a specific book of herbal spells and tracked us down online. Correct me if I am wrong, Chanyeol, but you don’t seem to fall into either category. What drew you in?”

“Are you conducting some kind of weirdly intimate customer survey or something?” Chanyeol responded jokingly.

“No, no. Not at all. I’m just curious.”

“Well, I was actually just stood outside looking at some of the things on the wall of the shop when…Veronica, is it? She asked me to come inside. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have even considered coming in otherwise,” he laughed nervously, hoping that didn’t come off as rude, “I don’t really believe in all this stuff.”

All of a sudden, Kyungsoo’s eyes changed. Not physically. Physically, they didn’t move, remaining focused right in front of him as they had the whole time, as though he was focusing intensely on something but nothing at the same time, or thinking deeply about something. It was an emotional change. Seemingly, there was a light in his brain that had been switched from a white light to a red light. Maybe Chanyeol really had offended him - he had just insulted his entire way of life, after all. Chanyeol’s comment was akin to telling a Christian that their God isn’t real, or telling a Muslim that Islam is complete nonsense. No one could blame Kyungsoo for being upset.

It seemed that Baekhyun had also noticed this and he reached for Kyungsoo’s arm and held it in both his own, stroking it gently in comfort. Kyungsoo responded by placing his hand on top of Baekhyun’s.

That confirmed in Chanyeol’s mind that it was time for him to go. Not only had he seriously upset both men, he had also completely imposed upon their lives. He’d spent the last forty minutes ogling Baekhyun, and had almost been caught holding his hands which, though not strictly a “big deal”, it had been pretty intimate in Chanyeol’s mind. _Of course he’s Baekhyun’s boyfriend,_ he thought, _why would a man that beautiful be single? They even live together! With a child for goodness sake._ He had to leave before he started to feel even more stupid.

The other men had forgotten he was there though.

“Soo, don’t worry about, Vee,” Baekhyun pleaded, “I won’t let her get away with this, I promise you. Rhoslyn will be fine, too. Can’t you feel it? Chanyeol is a _good person…”_

 _Hang on a minute._ Chanyeol was starting to get a little confused. He had caused offense but he was having a hard time stringing all of the parts of this scenario together. What did this have to do with Veronica?

“Yes, Beaekhuyn,” Kyungsoo said through gritted teeth, “that is precisely why he is here! Don’t you see that his good character alone makes this all a hell of a lot easier for her? She’s a manipulative bitch, Baekhyun and _you_ can’t seem to accept that. How can be certain you can protect Rhoslyn, huh?”

Chanyeol’s head was completely spinning at this point. Wasn’t Rhoslyn Baekhyun’s daughter? She certainly didn’t have anything to do with Chanyeol so there was something he was clearly missing. Why did both men seem so protective of the young girl? All parents were protective, that was a given, but this was borderline concerning. All kinds of thoughts whizzed through Chanyeol’s mind. He had visions of Baekhyun and his family living in an abusive home, mistreated by Veronica. At university, he had attended a seminar about such things and he was seeing serious red flags. Yet he still failed to see how he came into all of this.

“Soo, please,” he looked over at Chanyeol then, his eyes looking sad while Kyungsoo’s began to soften, “not in front of Chanyeol. God, Chanyeol, you must think us completely mad!!”

He laughed a bit too hysterically, making Chanyeol even more concerned. How could he stay when he was only a customer but how could he leave when something serious was clearly going on here? The panic set in again before Kyungsoo announced that someone was coming into the shop.

“I guess we best go out the front then. We’ll be closing in a little while anyway so I’ll have to lock up,” Baekhyun stood from his seat and both Chanyeol and Kyungsoo followed suit, “sorry this wasn’t more scintillating, Chanyeol. I was going to make you another mug of tea but I suppose you’re itching to go now.”

Chanyeol was, in fact, far from itching to go, and feeling as though he was getting emotional whiplash didn’t help, but he still felt strangely drawn to the place. He felt guilty to admit it but he still thought Baekhyun seemed completely wonderful, and he seemed like such a lovely person with a whole lot on his plate. What caused the most guilt was leaving Baekhyun at the shop when he might be in danger. Then he reminded himself that Baekhyun was hardly alone. As the peculiar man moved to squeeze Kyungsoo’s hand, Chanyeol couldn’t help the way his stomach seemed to sink.

The three men made their way to the front of the shop, still not without a quick glance into the living room. Kyungsoo stuck his head around the door, calling out to Rhoslyn to confirm her presence before shutting the door again.

As they reached the front of the shop, Chanyeol was surprised to find that no one was there after all. The place was completely deserted, the only sign of life being the cool breeze blowing through an open window on the front wall and the soft light which was cast by the sun on the wooden floor. Maybe Kyungsoo had misheard. 

The next thing he noticed was his friends bursting through the door, making a complete racket. It was also blatantly obvious where they had been judging by their rosy cheeks and glassy eyes. They were rather embarrassing at the best of times but, when they were drunk, it was a whole lot worse.

“CHANYEOL!!!” Jongdae screamed at the top of his lungs in a typical Jongdae fashion, “We missed you _so_ much! Where have you _been?_ ”

The incredibly loud man wobbled over to his friend and wrapped an arm around his shoulders while the others wobbled about the shop. Minseok was admiring all of the books with his mouth gaping, while Jongin and Sehun were trying on mood rings and finding the whole ordeal thoroughly amusing.

For some reason unbeknownst to Chanyeol, Baekhyun was humouring Jongin and Sehun by explaining what the different colours meant. Even though they had completely destroyed the calm serenity of the shop and it was close to closing time, neither Kyungsoo or Baekhyun seemed to mind much. Minseok began asking Kyungsoo about one book which was written in a foreign language when Chanyeol decided they should probably leave.

“Hey, guys. I reckon we should go now.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Minseok sounded a lot more sober than he had a few minutes ago, “we don’t even have anywhere to stay yet and it’s getting late.”

“Aw that’s a shame,” Baekhyun sounded quite disappointed – the guy was an emotional rollercoaster, “if you’re stuck for somewhere to stay, we are also a motel. You can stay free of charge since you’re all so lovely!” No one was really sure if the wink that followed meant he was joking. Kyungsoo just rolled his eyes.

Chanyeol looked at him with furrowed brows. It was difficult to picture where they possibly had room for guests.

“The upstairs of the shop runs all across the top of the pub and the other shops in the courtyard,” he explained, “did you think we slept in the kitchen or something?” He teased with a smirk.

The group of friends thanked Baekhyun for the offer and started to pile out of the shop. They could only hope that there would be somewhere else to stay, though Chanyeol secretly wanted an excuse to go back to the shop even before he had left.

It was also hard to ignore the cold, hollow feeling that emerged in his chest when he stepped back onto the courtyard, a stark change from the comforting warmth he had felt pool in his body as he entered the shop.

Even more strange given the warmth of the evening air.


	3. Part One - Burning Heart, Freezing Soul

It had been well after eleven o’clock that evening before they had found a place to sleep and, frankly, Chanyeol was exhausted. He was still completely dead to the world twelve hours later, the bed in the B&B they had found being the most comfortable so far. That may have been more to do with the tiredness of his bones than anything.

He had spent the night having vivid dreams of strange men in peculiar shops who spoke in tongues he could not understand and performing spells which actually produced results. The most mundane tasks were being performed by these men with a flourish of the hand and with a foray of sparks. The dishes were cleaned in an instant followed by a puff of blue smoke and doors were opened without any physical contact with human hands. Even food was prepared in the blink of an eye.

The sight behind Chanyeol’s eyes was truly magical and he relaxed in his dreamy state, admiring the imaginary world where the impossible was truly possible until the scene became clearer. The backdrop of the dream was The Broken Vial and the men in question were none other than Baekhyun and Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo was the one preparing the food without moving from his position in the middle of the kitchen and without so much as touching a single pot or pan. He moved his right hand in a circular motion as he directed a wooden spoon around a boiling pot of porridge, sparks flying around as he did so.

As his mind transported him from the kitchen and into the living room, Chanyeol was met with a vision of Baekhyun lounging across the sofa, with his head resting on the arm on one end and his feet propped up on the other arm. In his arms, Chanyeol saw Rhoslyn who was tightly tucked into his side, listening to him as he read a book to her, a book Chanyeol hadn’t noticed he was holding. The book was written in a language unintelligible to Chanyeol but it sounded beautifully wistful as it fell from the young man’s mouth expertly, almost as though it were his native tongue.

_Sióga siúl timpeall orainn_

_Tá sióga níos gaire ná a cheapann tú_

_An gcomhlíon tú síochán, Chanyeol?_

_Have you ever met a fairy, Chanyeol?_

Suddenly, Chanyeol was able to comprehend every single word.

_Fairies walk among us_

_Fairies are closer than you think_

“Have you ever met a fairy, Chanyeol?” Baekhyun was looking directly at him.

The book was no longer in his hands and Rhoslyn had fallen completely limp in his arms. She looked deathly pale and Chanyeol realised then that Baekhyun was standing up as his daughter slid from his grasp as though she was made of liquid. He was no longer standing in his living room but was instead standing at the edge of an incredibly steep cliff with ferocious waters below him.

Rhoslyn fell completely then. Chanyeol did not see her fall but he did hear Baekhyun’s blood-curdling scream. It shot through every fibre of Chanyeol’s body and made his bones feel as though they were rattling in his skin. There was no emotion on Baekhyun’s face, however.

The young man merely stood at the edge of the cliff with a beautiful smile across his angelic face. Chanyeol’s mind was consumed by his beauty, leaving him feeling hypnotised. As Baekhyun backed towards the monstrous drop behind him, Chanyeol knew without a shadow of a doubt that – if he were to fall - he would fall to the ground after him.

“Have you ever met a fairy Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asked again, his chilling scream still echoing in Chanyeol’s mind. “Would you be willing to save the life of a fairy, Chanyeol?”

A solitary tear fell down his porcelain face, his smile never faltering but his eyes seemingly turning to glass. Chanyeol saw his own reflection in them and he was nodding. He was nodding ferociously.

The young man smiled his dazzling smile once more before jumping.

Without a second’s thought, Chanyeol jumped too. He felt the wind rush around his ears as he spun around and around. He even spotted Rhoslyn who was sitting on a rock at the foot of the cliff as it moved further and further away from the shore. As Chanyeol’s body spun once more to face towards the sky, he saw a body shoot above the land. He didn’t fail to notice the wing’s sprouting from behind it before he hit the ground.

 

The next thing Chanyeol noticed was his own screams filling his ears.

“Jesus Christ, Chanyeol are you okay!?” Minseok ran over to the side of Chanyeol’s bed from where he had been standing, going through his suitcase. He lifted his hand to the younger man’s forehead, gasping upon finding that –despite the fact that Chanyeol was dripping with sweat –he was freezing cold to the touch. It was as though he had just emerged from a freezing body of water.

“You look like shit,” Jongdae very helpfully added but he did look genuinely concerned as he made his way over to kneel beside Minseok.

Chanyeol couldn’t disagree given that he actually felt like shit. He felt as though he had been in the shower with his clothes on and he was shivering from head to toe. Was he seriously becoming unwell during the final week of the trip?

It came to Chanyeol’s attention then that he had woken up Sehun and Jongin who had been sleeping top-to-tail in one of the room’s single beds. Despite having been rudely awaken, they too looked incredibly concerned as they shifted to look at their friend.

“God, guys! I’m not dying! Stop looking at me like that,” Chanyeol gave them all serious looks to show that he wasn’t joking, “I just had a bad dream, that’s all.”

He proved to his friends that he was in good health by standing up and shooing Jongdae and Minseok out of the way as he walked towards the en-suite bathroom. Upon catching himself in the mirror, he felt a little nauseous. He looked so, so pale and the bags under his eyes resembled huge grey bruises. He certainly didn’t resemble someone who had slept for nearly twelve hours. How could a bad dream which didn’t even remotely resemble true events have such a dire effect on him?

Not wanting to waste a day feeling sorry for himself, however, he stripped off and jumped into the shower, hoping that blasting warm water on his cold body would alleviate the ice in his bones. As he stood under the stream, unable to see anything in front of him for the boiling hot steam, all he could think about was a certain Baekhyun and his quaint little shop. His memories of the other man’s features were so vivid it was almost as though he were looking at a photograph. The swelling of his beating heart at the thought of the young father did not go unnoticed, either, and he longed to see him again despite everything.

Over thirty minutes had passed before someone started rapping on the bathroom door, forcing Chanyeol out of his trance. The shower had done nothing to restore the warmth into his body but he at least felt a little more lucid and the steam and running water had relaxed his muscles.

It was the strangest feeling. Instead of feeling chilly due to cold air, Chanyeol felt as though his blood was running cold and no attempts to warm him up were working. Minseok insisted after checking his temperature multiple times and furnishing him with numerous cups of coffee that his temperature was no way out of the ordinary.

“You probably just need to work your muscles for a bit,” he suggested.

The other four men had decided while Chanyeol was in the shower to spend another day in Glastonbury. There were so many places they had not yet explored given that they arrived so early and Jongin, for one, had seen a café he wanted to stop by for lunch.

So, that’s what they did. The five men quickly packed their bags and walked them to the van before heading back into the town.

The weather was equally as warm as the day before but anyone would be hard pressed to convince Chanyeol of that. He was wearing three layers which made him sweat profusely but did nothing to alleviate the cold he felt inside him. He was still insistent on having a good day though and followed around after his friends, ignoring their worried glances.

“Hey, Chanyeol,” Jongin spoke up as he moved the last scrap of his salad around on his plate.

They had stopped off at the café they came across the day before. The food was delicious and that was evident by the plates that had been wiped clean, all but Chanyeol’s. Chanyeol couldn’t even taste the food. It felt like tasteless sugar paper as he just allowed it to dissolve in his mouth. Honestly, absolutely everything just felt so…flat. The only feeling that resonated within him was the cold emptiness that hadn’t left him since he woke up that morning. 

Jongin continued, “maybe we should all just head towards somewhere to sleep for the night. Maybe we should find a hotel somewhere so you can have a proper sleep. Minseok can drive us so you don’t have to worry.”

Minseok nodded enthusiastically, “absolutely, Yeol. This is nothing like you at all. It is like someone has zapped all of the life out of you. In my opinion, you need a decent sleep to revitalise.”

“Yeah, Yeol,” Sehun spoke this time, “this trip has been go, go, go and you’ve been more active than any of us. It’s alright to admit you are tired.”

Chanyeol forced a smile, desperately wanting to appreciate his friend’s concern but he was completely drowning in panic if anything at all. He wasn’t feeling tired. He certainly wasn’t exhausted since the excitement of the trip had provided all of the momentum he had needed to keep going. Yet he agreed to try. It couldn’t hurt, could it? Maybe he really was just tired. The suggestion was far from outrageous.

The group was walking steadily back to the van, still not wanting to miss anything of interest as they went, when Chanyeol felt a strange tug in his chest, which he chose to ignore; he had drunk about five cups of coffee that morning so it was hardly a surprise. However, as they advanced further down the road, the tug became more aggressive. It in no way resembled a heart palpitation either as it seemed to have direction and, as he walked, his chest felt as though it was pulling to the right of his body.

He was about to alert his friends to the sensation in case he was experiencing some kind of heart attack. That would explain an awful lot but the thought of winding up in a hospital made his head feel like it was filling with air, and his ears began to buzz in panic. This was until he came to an abrupt stop in front of the alleyway which led to The Broken Vial.

The tug in his heart was unbelievably forceful now and was unmistakably pulling Chanyeol’s entire body sideways. Before his friends could work out what was happening, Chanyeol made his way over to the shop as naturally as gravity held him to the ground, almost as though he were on autopilot.

His mind was blank as he pushed the door forward. A bell rang softly above his head – a bell that hadn’t been there the previous day – but he barely noticed. The only thing he noticed was the rush of warmth that poured into every inch of his body. The heat filled him with such pleasure and such sweet relief that it knocked the air out of his lungs, pushing him to his knees. He felt like he was alive again. The world seemed so much more vibrant than it had all but thirty seconds ago. The tunnelled vision he hadn’t even noticed before was wiped from his vision and his world felt so much wider.

Even in the shock, his restored sharp hearing allowed him to notice the beads rustling from behind the counter.

“Good afternoon, how can I he-,” the voice stopped suddenly, “Ch-Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol lifted his head with great difficulty. While his energy levels had been restored tenfold, he still felt very breathless, even more so when he met the eyes of Baekhyun who was stood glued to the floor by the counter.

“Hi,” was all he could manage to choke out.

Baekhyun rushed over to his side then and inspected him with trembling hands, “what on earth has happened to you?”

“You tell me, Baekhyun.” Then the world went black.


	4. Part One - Moonlit Revelations

Chanyeol woke up for the second time that day in Baekhyun’s living room. The first thing he noticed was that the ceiling was decorated with the same cloths as the ceiling of the shop, as well as being decorated with the same bells and fairy lights.

The second thing he noticed was that the room around him was one he had seen before but was also one he had never actually stepped foot in. He couldn’t fight the eerie feeling that passed through his body upon realising he had last seen the room in his dream. _That can never be right,_ he thought.

The third thing he noticed was a pair of blue eyes staring up at him from the floor. When his own eyes made contact with them, they widened to twice the size and a small girl emerged. _Rhoslyn._

“DAD!!!” She screamed at the top of her tiny lungs but not breaking eye contact for even one second, “the tall man has woken up!!!”

She continued to study Chanyeol in pure fascination as he lifted himself into a sitting position. He just smiled at her, feeling slightly uncomfortable under her questioning gaze but also reminding himself that she was only a child, she wasn’t to know any better.

“Who are you?” She asked the question bluntly with a confused look on her face, “are you my dad’s friend?”

Given that Chanyeol was far from being a friend and much more in the realm of being an intruder, he wasn’t sure how to answer the question. He seriously hoped the young girl’s father would turn up soon but, judging by the voices out in the hall, he was probably busy.

“Did you have a nice nap?” She asked, looking at Chanyeol inquisitively, “Daddy said I shouldn’t wake you up because you were really, super tired. I didn’t wake you up did I? I was only looking at you because your nose was all twitchy and daddy said to call him if you looked unwell.” She looked a little guilty so Chanyeol kindly reassured her that he woke up from his ‘sleep’ of his own accord.

She jumped up onto the settee and shuffled awkwardly until she was knelt facing the incredibly tall man. She inspected him closely once more, even taking the liberty of tugging on his ears slightly and looking deeply into his eyes. Whatever she saw wasn’t what she had expected and she scrunched her face in confusion.

“You aren’t from where my daddy is from are you?”

That was a question Chanyeol didn’t really know the answer to. He couldn’t place the other man’s accent because it sounded like a mix of multiple different ones. So, he just shrugged.

“You don’t know where he is from?” Chanyeol shook his head. “He normally tells me not to tell people but I suppose it is okay because you are his friend…”

She was about to tell him before the doors to the living room opened and the curiosity in her face was replaced with guilt. Whatever she was going to reveal was obviously something Chanyeol wasn’t supposed to know, but that only made him more curious.

With a bit of a huff, she bounced to sit on her bottom, squished closely into Chanyeol’s side as though she had known him for more than five minutes.

Baekhyun entered the room first and let out a long and deep breath upon realising Chanyeol was awake and widened the door to allow two more people to enter the room. Two young women followed through as he walked over to where Chanyeol was sitting and lifted up Rhoslyn from her seat, only to sit in her place with the young girl in his lap. He started to fiddle with the bobble in her hair and began plaiting her long locks while he spoke. _The multi-tasking skills of a parent._

“Chanyeol, do you have any idea what happened to you today?” He looked incredibly serious as he spoke, not so much has looking away from his busy hands, which made Chanyeol nervously shift in his seat.

“No idea,” Baekhyun just sighed and Chanyeol noticed that the two women who stood in front of the television (much to a very fidgety Rhoslyn’s dismay) were also listening to him closely, the same serious looks on their faces. “I started to feel a little unusual when I left here yesterday – the fever set in as soon as I stepped out of the door -,”

“Oh my God!” One of the young women cut him off in the middle of his sentence and brought her hands to cover her mouth in shock. She was dressed in really unusual clothes, Chanyeol noticed: she was wearing a full-length black cloak complete with a hood that she slowly lifted from her head to reveal long, light brown hair woven with cherry blossoms, and she was wearing a beautiful lace dress. She could have been mistaken for some kind of woodland princess.

The woman next to her wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her but her eyes looked stony as she stared directly at Chanyeol. This woman looked like she could squish Chanyeol between her thumb and forefinger and was dressed in all black, an outfit akin to that of a motorcyclist (but the kind that would be in a really scary gang), all apart from the splash of midnight blue from the lapels of her leather jacket.

“Babe,” the other girl lightly smacked the scary-looking girl lightly on the arm, “stop giving the poor guy the evils! It isn’t his fault,” she was trying to be subtle but her whisper was more of a stage whisper and Chanyeol looked between everyone in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” He turned to ask Baekhyun who still wouldn’t look at him and had now moved onto putting some shoes on his daughter’s feet.

“Look, Chanyeol,” the scary woman said bluntly, “whatever you think is wrong with you, quite frankly, isn’t what is wrong with you,” the other girl nodded her head enthusiastically, impressed with the other woman’s answer which, frankly, explained nothing, “we can’t exactly…tell you what _is_ wrong because Baekhyun here has given us strict instructions not to-,”

“Wow, Amber! Thanks a bunch for that! Make out like I am the bad guy, why don’t you?” The young man was clearly trying to mask his panic, hence why he hadn’t spoken much yet, but the slight wobble in his voice gave his true feelings away.

Amber gave him an apologetic look but still continued to speak, “but regardless, we think we have an idea of how to make you feel less…shitty. We just need to confirm some things first?”

Chanyeol felt like he was stuck in the middle of a whirlwind with his eyes closed. With his physical health seemingly having a mind of its own and all these strange people talking in cryptic codes around him, he had no idea what to think. Not to mention the fact that his friends had gone AWOL in all the chaos. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious for and with his mind spinning in tired and groggy panic – the way it always does when you sleep for far too long in the middle of the day – he felt like crying. That wouldn’t help, of course, but it would at least be nice to know what was happening.

So he voiced his grievances to the room only to be met with apologetic glances from everyone apart from Rhoslyn who seemed just as confused.

“Where are we going daddy?”

“To see uncle ‘Xing. Daddy needs his help with something…”

“Is this about the nasty pixies who live outside in the world again daddy?” She said with a big sigh for such a small person. Her eyes rolled dramatically and she looked at her father like he was being silly, “I’ve told you _before_ that the pixies aren’t dangerous, daddy. The people on the telly go outside _all_ the time and they are fine! You and uncle Soo go outside all the time, too! Why do you think the nasty pixies would hurt me and not them?”

By this point, Chanyeol had given up figuring out what was going on. It looked like he was being taken for a ride which was such a shame considering Baekhyun had seemed so nice yesterday. No one would have guessed he had a few screws loose. It was no real shock; Chanyeol always did have a bad taste in men.

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol went to stand up, not noticing as the two women lurched forwards with their arms outstretched to stop him from moving. _Great. I’m being kidnapped by crazy people._ He just sighed, “I respect that you are trying to help me but I feel fresh as a daisy! Maybe Minseok was right, all I needed was a sleep. So, if it’s all the same to you, I am going to find my friends.”

He went to walk out of the door before Baekhyun, now desperate with tears in his eyes, blocked his path.

 _“Please, Chanyeol,”_ he sniffled, “I get it. I seem like a crazy person! Fair enough. It is a bit twisted to lock your own daughter indoors. I understand to an outsider I look like a psychopath. But I _need_ you to trust me if for no reason other than for your own benefit because, if I let you out of those doors right now, you won’t get better. _God, you might not even make it home,”_ well, that made Chanyeol stop and listen, his bones turning rigid in fear.

He just stood with his mouth bobbing open and closed like a feeding fish, completely lost for words. Baekhyun was right, he was a nutter but with the possibility of dying on the cards, and the sincere look in the _really, really strange_ man’s eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

“Just let me take you to my friend – I need him to confirm some things – and if there is nothing wrong I swear to you; I will let you leave. I promise.”

Chanyeol would like to say he considered it for at least a second given all the red flags but he didn’t. His mind was completely blank as he nodded in agreement. Then he was being wrapped up in the young woman’s cloak and ushered towards the door while Baekhyun concealed both his and his daughter’s heads with similar cloaks.

The young woman held Chanyeol by his sides and smiled softly, “don’t worry Chanyeol. You can trust Baekhyun to look after you. He is a big softie. He is only doing what he thinks is right. Trust me,” for some reason, Chanyeol did, “and tell Yixing that Luna – me, I am Luna – says ‘hi’.”

“Yeah like he’ll remember that,” Amber held onto Luna’s hand and squeezed it, reassuring her that she was safe from a danger only Chanyeol had no concept of, “me and Luna will be here when you get back. We’ll be checking the…plumbing?”

 _Crazy people,_ was the last thing Chanyeol thought before he was dragged out by the hand onto the street.

There were many things Chanyeol had planned to do on his trip to England: he wanted to visit at least five castles, he wanted to spend a few days exploring London, and he absolutely wanted to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. Other than that, he was open to pretty much anything. If you had have told him before he set off, however, that he would spend the penultimate evening of the trip laying prostrate on the wooden workbench in the shop of a traditional apothecarist, he would have laughed in your face. Not to mention the fact that he had been forced to strip his top off for reasons beyond him.

Yixing Zhang seemed like a kind man and it wasn’t that Chanyeol didn’t trust him to prod around him like he was some sort of test specimen (although, if Chanyeol had judged the man’s medical abilities by the awful state of his workshop, he would have been out of there like a shot – the place was a bombsite.) He just wasn’t a huge fan of strangers breathing down on him as they covered his entire body in strange substances which fizzed and popped as they landed on his skin. That didn’t mean the unconventional remedies didn’t make him feel good as they seeped through his skin and warmed him to his core.

It wasn’t as though Chanyeol had been his only patient, either. As soon as they had arrived, the young apothecarist had led Rhoslyn into his workshop and given her some kind of bizarre check-up, seemingly doing a full body scan with just his hands. Whatever he had been testing for he hadn’t found anyway and let the girl off to go and play by herself in the corner while her dad looked so relieved it seemed he may faint.

The thing that unnerved him the most was Baekhyun propped on a stool in the corner, staring between him and Rhoslyn as though they were both dead people walking and, were he to avert his eyes for more than five seconds, they would vanish in an instant.

“How are you feeling Chanyeol?” Yixing had finally stopped rubbing one of the creams – a translucent purple one this time which made his entire body tickle – and moved over to the sink in the far corner.

Chanyeol thought for a while as he watched Yixing bottle up some pills. It wasn’t like he could give the man an honest answer; he had gone from feeling on the edge of death to feeling perfectly fine and, as soon as he had left the shop again, he felt the coldness returning to him but not as strongly as before. He explained this to Yixing who seemed impressed to learnt here had been some improvement. Baekhyun had told him that he expected that to happen as he promised that Yixing would be able to give him something to ease the unnerving sensation momentarily. Chanyeol didn’t fail to notice that, as he explained this, Baekhyun had carried out a loose brick from the front of the shop with him as he walked onto the road.

He presented the brick to Yixing then as he carried the small collection of bottles over to Chanyeol.

“Ah, I see,” he said, as if the presence of the brick explained everything, so much so that Chanyeol didn’t need to answer his previous question.

Baekhyun spoke up for only the second time since they had arrived, the first time being a mere greeting, “Yixing, please tell me she hasn’t done what I think she has…she warned me and I didn’t listen and now she has buggered off and left this mess behind…Yixing, it’s all my fault.”

He was blubbering then, the tears streaming down his face making him look pitiful. He was a man on the edge and Chanyeol wished that he knew why but it was a secret that, despite completely revolving around him, he couldn’t know the answer to, at least not yet.

“No, no, Baekhyun. This is not your fault,” Yixing squeezed the smaller man into a tight hug as he sniffed and wailed, “we can sort this out. It’s a basic binding spell, nothing we can’t handle.”

Once again, Chanyeol was so lost in what was happening he was convinced he had never woken up from the nightmare that woke him that morning. With all of this talk of fairies and enchantments, along with cryptic discussions and phantom illnesses, he had no idea where reality ended and fantasy began.

As if the situation couldn’t get any worse, Rhoslyn was complaining of severe head pains and looked deathly pale. She, too, had been fine until she left the house which made Chanyeol think that, whatever bug they had both caught must have had a really unusual sense of humour.

“I think you need to go home, Baek,” Yixing said kindly, “I expect Kyungsoo will have arrived back by now. He will take care of you all, you know he would warn you if you were in direct danger. Luna and Amber will have ensured the wards are still protecting the house so Rhoslyn will be fine. Don’t fret, child.”

As much as Chanyeol would have appreciated the loving scene before him at any other time, the sight of Baekhyun clinging onto the other man would no doubt have been endearing in any other situation, he couldn’t help but feel incredibly selfish.

“Erm…that’s nice and all but what about me?” That only made Baekhyun scream and sob again and Yixing looked like he was about to announce that Chanyeol’s ailment was terminal.

“I’m afraid it’s not brilliant news for you, Chanyeol,” he let go of a distraught Baekhyun and handed the pills over to Chanyeol, “if I told you what was really wrong with you, you would think me crazy so I will save you that trauma for today. I am certain Baekhyun here will have ample time to tell you everything.”

“Oh no, sir. I’m not staying here much longer. I have to head home in two days.”

“See, that is the bad news…”

Chanyeol just frowned. There was no way they could stop him from going home after all of this. As the sun began to set and the light dimmed in the messy workshop, all Chanyeol wanted was to be tucked up in bed in a shitty B&B with his idiot friends. He couldn’t bear the sight of beautiful men and their hostile boyfriends, not even their eccentric friends. Least of all did he want to chance upon the most elusive of them all, Veronica, who had gotten him into this mess in the first place, someone he had forgotten all about until the prospect of having to remain in the proximity of a potentially dangerous woman made his hairs stand on end.

It what selfish of him because, either way, he would leave this mess behind but he would be lying to himself if he said he had any desire to stay.

“Take these pills. They should stop a repeat of the fainting incident. To cut the story short, you fainted because your body couldn’t cope with the strong energy the shop possesses. To tell the truth, only you are affected by that energy which is kind of the problem,” he laughed at a joke that Chanyeol did not find at all funny, “but I won’t distress you with the details. You also need to stay at The Broken Vial for the foreseeable future.”

Chanyeol almost exploded at that point. He wanted to scream or cry or run away but he knew he couldn’t because whatever was going on here was too serious for him to comprehend. _One night, he would stay for one night._

Stay for one night he did.

When he finally arrived back to the shop with his pills in hand and a solemn Baekhyun in tow carrying a droopy Rhoslyn, he was pulled to the side by Kyungsoo. He was told that his friends had stopped by the shop earlier in the evening and Kyungsoo had ensured that they had a place to stay just outside of the town. Knowing that Kyungsoo had taken the time to make sure his friends were taken care of offered a little bit of comfort.

Then Kyungsoo led Chanyeol along a dark corridor to a spare room upstairs. It was completely pitch black which, while insignificant to Kyungsoo who had to learn the layout of the house down to the last inch anyway, was disconcerting for Chanyeol. He did notice, however, that there were multiple doors down the hallway, all of which were numbered apart from two at the end. The lights were on in a couple and orange hues beamed out into the hall through the gaps but most of them were void of life.

“Room 15 is you,” Kyungsoo said when he decided that room 15 was most likely close by and handed Chanyeol the key, “I just need to shut the windows – we had a pretty smelly guest in there last so I was airing it out – then I’ll let you go.”

Chanyeol opened the door and Kyungsoo followed the sound of his footsteps through to the room.

“I know this isn’t ideal and you definitely don’t want to be here,” Kyungsoo said as he locked the window, “but I can assure you this is for the best. Trust me when I say that Baekhyun is deathly worried about you and none of us want to do this but we have no choice.”

“Why not? People keep telling me that I have no choice but they won’t tell me _why?_ You may be able to read Baekhyun’s mind – he is your boyfriend after all – but I can’t. I feel like I am being dragged around in the dark here! Do me a favour and explain what’s going on!”

“First of all,” Kyungsoo said much more calmly than the other man’s outburst had been, “Baekhyun is not my boyfriend but I am flattered you think I could punch that high above my weight.”

Well, if Chanyeol hadn’t been embarrassed before he was now. Typical, stupid Chanyeol jumping to conclusions. Not that it made much difference since the infatuation he had no doubt felt for Baekhyun before had become somewhat a distant memory.

“Secondly, I know Baekhyun incredibly well and he is definitely getting around to explaining things to you. He needs to do it in his own time but he will. Now, get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Kyungsoo had left him to sleep that evening, Chanyeol had spent hours just tossing and turning, physically unable to drift off to sleep. Although the day he had just had was one of the longest and most mentally draining he had ever experienced, his mind wouldn’t switch off.

As he lay awake running the events of the day over in his mind, he became increasingly less able to make sense of any of it. One minute he was practically on the verge of death, feeling as though every ounce of life had been sucked out of him by some kind of demon and then, almost as swiftly as the drop of a hat, he was restored to optimum health. He supposed he could thank Yixing and his medicine for that at least somewhat because, since he had taken his evening dosage of pills his bodily warmth was completely restored and he had a spike in energy. That wasn’t helping the sleep issue.

He was also a little terrified of sleeping in case he had repeat occurrences like the one he’d had that morning. Freaking out in a dramatic fashion after a nightmare – and an inexplicable on at that – when in the presence of his closest friends was one thing but, in the home of complete strangers? He didn’t fancy embarrassing himself anymore that day. Let alone the fact that he didn’t want to broach the subject with Baekhyun.

_By the way, I have been having nightmares about you murdering your own child is that cool?_

The thought made Chanyeol’s blood run cold. Maybe he was a psychopath! Could someone go through 23 years of life without realising such a thing? Apparently, he had gone through life not realising he had a severe underlying health condition which could pounce on him at any second and show him up in front of beautifully eccentric shop owners and their equally as eccentric friends.

Baekhyun.

Baekhyun, Baekhyun, Baekhyun.

No matter how hard Chanyeol tried, he couldn’t shake the young man out of his thoughts. His entire body cringed on reflection of the events from earlier in the day but the only remedy to these feelings was the image of Baekhyun.

The sheer life force of the other man had pummelled Chanyeol into a whirlwind of feelings and he couldn’t fathom how it had happened. Picturing Baekhyun’s slender form, sparkling eyes, and warm but scatty personality made his heart swell up in his chest, clenching his throat as though a swarm of butterflies was fighting to burst out.

He supposed, as he started at the navy-blue ceiling above the bed, counting the yellow stars painted into constellations across the expanse of the room, that his feelings were not too outrageous. Chanyeol was a romantic. He would fall in love as easily as the summer breeze changes direction, and he would be pulled along by it, relishing in the feeling of love. It is, after all, a wonderful feeling. It made his heart feel alive, it made him feel as though he was put on this earth to love someone else.

He would fall in love with the pretty girl with pretty eyes, or the handsome boy with a nice smile and he would thrive off the feeling. Falling in love with the peculiar shop owner with the porcelain skin and delicate hands would be no different.

This didn’t mean he had a blossoming love life, however. Chanyeol let his feelings guide his life above all else and he was dazzled by beauty. He had a heart of pure gold but gold, after all, is incredibly malleable. He would offer his heart on a silver platter to the girl with the pretty eyes and the boy with the lovely smile, only to watch them twist it into something unrecognisable, leaving him to fix the broken pieces.

All of his friends worried about him extremely. The world isn’t kind to hopeless romantics and they were tired of having to lift him off the ground when his romantic flings kicked him to the ground. They never failed to admire how he never lost his sparkle though. Chanyeol had the naïve innocence of a young child who truly believes that all will be good in the end, that the world can’t really be that bad, and that good things happen to good people.

That is why they all felt so much guilt knowing that they would have to leave Chanyeol behind when he had only ever brought sunshine into their lives.

In an attempt to burn off some cobwebs and distract himself from his unhelpful thoughts, Chanyeol hopped out of bed and started milling around the room. The covers of the bed were incredibly uncomfortable (they were made from spun silk which was, frankly, very unpleasant on such a hot night) and the cool air in the room was refreshing as it made its way around his bare arms and calves.

A chest of draws beneath the window, which he swiftly opened again upon standing to allow some air in, grabbed his attention first. He sat cross-legged in front of it, allowing the long net curtains around the window to brush past his arms, and inspected all of the items it housed.

On top of the chest was a beautiful bunch of flowers in a crystal vase, in an array of vibrant colours Chanyeol didn’t even think would be possible in plant life. Surrounding the vase were unlit candles and half-burned incense sticks – _probably to get rid of the smell,_ he thought to himself – which he began to light.

The musty smell that reached his nose reminded him of his home back in Korea. His mother had a bit of an incense problem, as it were, and burned the damn sticks constantly throughout the day. She claimed it reminded her of her mother and father who spent their lives smoking and that the clouds filling their home made her feel as though they had never died. Chanyeol knew she was just filling a hole in her heart and he couldn’t blame her. Nevertheless, the smell immediately relaxed his muscles.

He then began to rifle through the draws which, to his slight disappointment, only contained books. Judging by the weird and wonderful trinkets cluttering the rest of the house he was surprised, but he did suppose it was a room to accommodate guests and not the owner’s bizarre whims and fancies.

Still, he was pleased to discover that the books themselves were out of the ordinary. Alongside the typical Gideons King James Bible found in hotels everywhere, there was a worn out, pocket-sized copy of the Qur’an, and miscellaneous books about Wicca, or books describing ancient runes. There was also a book outlining aspects of the Buddha dharma which was quite unusual. Clearly, Baekhyun had tried to think of everyone who could possibly pass through this room and tried to accommodate for them.

Something that Chanyeol almost didn’t even process was that this particular book was written in Korean and that it was identical to one that his mother had inherited from her mother-in-law. She had briefly gone through a period of intense fascination with Buddhism around the same time her marriage with Chanyeol’s father had fallen apart and the estranged man upped and left in the middle of the night, leaving the mother and son alone.

She always knew, as did Chanyeol, that her heart was never truly in it. She was a mere fantasist, forever looking for a spark in life that just wasn’t there, in the vain hope that something would come along and show her that a difficult, merciless life isn’t all any of us are granted. As Chanyeol leafed through the yellowing, tea-stained pages of the book, he wondered if he was just like his mother in that sense. Maybe that was why he was so fascinated in Baekhyun; he brought something else to a table piled to the brim with not very much at all.

Maybe Baekhyun was Korean, too, he pondered mindlessly. His accent told an entirely different story; it wasn’t quite English, it wasn’t quite anything, and it had a soft wispy tone to it never heard before. He truly was an enigma. Completely unfathomable, unscrupulous; another quality that drew Chanyeol in like a moth to a flame.

As if reading his mind, a passage of text stood out from the page, literally spurting light from the edges of the text.

“He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes,” Chanyeol read aloud, his low voice disturbing the flow of smoke from the incense stick.

“It’s solid advice, Chanyeol.”

“AGH!” Chanyeol leapt out of his skin as he whipped his head around so quickly he felt as though his neck would snap off, coming face-to-face with none other than Baekhyun who stood in the doorway wearing pyjama shorts and a holy t-shirt. He had a tartan blanket wrapped over his shoulders which he pulled closer to himself as a cool breeze brushed past him from the window.

“Shit, Baekhyun, you scared me half to death!” Chanyeol clutched his hands to his chest, gently beating his fist over his heart in an attempt to distract himself from the pounding. If he felt the punches, he could convince himself that it wasn’t his most vital organ that was actually causing the discomfort. If he convinced himself he was scared witless, he could pretend the presence of the other man wasn’t sending him into a frenzy.

“Sorry,” he replied simply, with an apologetic smile. He padded across the wooden flooring with his bare feet and nudged Chanyeol with his toes gently to get him to move over a little. He sat cross-legged in front of the chest and leaned into Chanyeol’s side to inspect the book in his lap.

As the two men stared at the same page, a few lines of the page began to glow again, leaving Chanyeol convinced that they were actually hovering above the page. He turned to Baekhyun to see if he had noticed this strange phenomenon only to realise that his eyes were glowing the same colour, his irises barely visible and the whites of his eyes completely black. If Chanyeol hadn’t been taught by his mother that it is rude to stare at people who looked…different, he may have even screamed.

Instead, he just shrugged it off. Just when he thought his day couldn’t get weirder, he was shocked once again. _Give me strength._

Baekhyun read the words on the page in Chanyeol’s mother tongue with his unidentifiable intonation.

“Three things cannot be long hidden,” he said, reaching across to take one of Chanyeol’s hands in his own, “the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

“Care to be a bit more cryptic?” Chanyeol joked with a laugh, gently nudging Baekhyun with his arm.

Baekhyun just smiled and rested his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder, closing his eyes and sighing deeply. Wherever this guy was from, his social graces were unconventionally friendly, and it was doing nothing to suppress Chanyeol’s thundering pulse.

After a few moments of complete silence, Baekhyun began to speak, not moving an inch from his resting position.

“I need to tell you the truth, Chanyeol. I can’t imagine what you are making of this whole situation and, even though there is nothing I can do to help you at the moment, if you are going to suffer because of me, I need you to at least know why you are suffering.”

This confused Chanyeol to no end because, at that moment, he didn’t feel like he was suffering. He felt like he was walking on air. He was about to voice his confusion when Baekhyun continued.

“The things that have been happening to you, they aren’t anything that can be explained by medical science and they aren’t anything to do with your body itself. You’re a fit and healthy young man, Chanyeol, don’t worry about that.”

Chanyeol didn’t know why Baekhyun was addressing him as though he was a grandson receiving a pep talk from an aged grandad, but he just accepted the compliment. Baekhyun thought he looked fit and it made his chest flutter.

“These things are less easy to explain,” he carried on and ran his hands across Chanyeol’s own as he did so, possibly so dazed from being unable to sleep just as Chanyeol was that he didn’t even know what he was doing. “What I am about to tell you, you may not even believe. I know you think I am batty – don’t even try to convince me otherwise, you have seen my home, my daughter, my _life,_ you don’t have to pretend – but I have good reason.”

Chanyeol just sat and listened, not entirely sure if he was prepared to hear what the other man had to say but he looked him dead in the eyes nonetheless and said, “you can tell me anything, Baekhyun, I will try my best to believe you.”

Baekhyun examined Chanyeol’s eyes for a few seconds for any sign that he was lying or being deceitful and then just smiled his gentle eye smile once more, “I hope you’re sitting comfortably,” Chanyeol nodded too enthusiastically, he was very, very comfortable. Perhaps too comfortable as Baekhyun’s head fell back on his shoulder. Baekhyun just giggled – he _giggled_ – at him and rolled his eyes, “okay then, if you are sure. I guess the whole batshit story starts the day I was born…”  



	5. Part Two - Ashes

_I wear my long black dress_

_And a veil of disaster_

_Flowers in my hair_   
_Crowned forever after_

  
_We shall be through in you_

_Staring at the end_   
_The day has come to an end_

_Page and waves of time_   
_The ocean has come to meet you_

 

_Waiting on the shore_

 

 

 

_Restless tide will come and take you_

 

 

_We shall be final in you_

_Staring at the end_

_The day has come to an end_

_-_ Ashes, Maggie Bjorklund


	6. Part Two - Living History. Dying Future.

There is quite possibly no better representation of the tenacious human spirit than a country in the midst of war. Nor is there a better representation of the heinous things they are capable of.

That’s what a fly on the wall would have said had they been in London on December 29th 1940, a day that has been hailed as the heaviest night of bombing during the Blitz. One would consider themselves incredibly lucky to have come out of that night unscathed, able to live to tell the tale but one woman considered herself luckier than most. Not only had she managed to make it out alive, she had managed to bring another life into the world.

As the air raid siren rang through the air, a young Jennie Kwon had bigger problems to deal with. She was laying alone in the attic of the townhouse which she called home, screaming at the top of her lungs in agony as she pushed, pushed, and pushed. No one could hear her of course given the incessant booming from the bombs outside which was accompanied by the spitting and cracking of roaring flames. She was never someone to have experienced good luck in her life – the fact that war had broken out only months after she escaped the horror she had experienced in her home country was evidence of this – but giving birth in an air raid really took the biscuit.

With the little remaining energy she had left, she sent out light signals from the palm of her hands – red, blue, and green in quick succession – hoping that the old sorceress who ran the home for exiled witches, wizards, fairies and other mystical folks would be able to see them. As one would expect, those gifted with magical powers and eternal life used the air raids as an opportunity to protect human people so there was no one else at home. Though these magical folk thought humans to be among the most horrific, unforgiving people to exist in the infinite universe, they could not merely sit by and watch as they took the lives of their own children, of their own kind.

After all, it was the world of these humans that other people called their home. Many fairies had never even seen the fairy realm, no surviving witches had a concept of a world without humans, and no mermaid remembered a sea without ships sailing upon it. If the humans tore their own world apart from the inside out, they would not be the only ones to suffer great loss.

Jennie was like them in the sense that she had not returned to the fairy realm since she left at the ripe age of nineteen, so overcome with a desire to see the human world that she left her own parents behind. She dreamt of living in a world of such vivid, vibrant energy, with music unfathomable to a fairy who would only be accustomed to the melodic sounds of the flowers and the trees as they hummed in the wind, and with the battlefield that was human emotion: love, lust, anger, deceit, fear; she wanted to feel it all.

This was all lovely in theory, but right now all she felt was desperate. Despite her hundred and three years of life, this was her first child and whether she was super-human or not, the thought of bringing life into the world on her own was terrifying. She had sought refuge in England purely because she needed someone who understood to help guide her through this really difficult time. As if being a new mother wasn’t difficult enough, knowing that a hoard of humans could come and take her child away to be the subject of some kind of sick scientific experiment, or simply rid her and her child of life because they were of a kind unknown to humans elicited great fear in her. As soon as she had heard of the home for people like her in London, England, she hadn’t wasted a second before leaving with her unborn child in tow.

She couldn’t go to a human hospital because she no longer had the energy to cover her markings; her veins were as intensely black as a clear night’s sky and stood out on her now sickly pale skin as magic coursed through them. This would be shocking enough for a human doctor to see, not to mention the fact that the whites of her eyes completely vanished in her fairy form, revealing two jet black voids, and her dark brown hair was tangled with silver strands, another sign of her unbelievable powers. This was without considering the vast expanse of the wings that sprouted from in between her shoulder blades whenever she willed them to appear, something she very rarely did.

With sweat dripping from her every pore and indescribable pain shooting through her body, she gave birth to her first son. No longer having any energy left to send out signals for help, she strained herself to gather her son in her trembling arms, swaddling him in the woollen cardigan she had been wearing that day.

He looked just like her except the markings on his body were light blue. She could feel the magic in him as she held him closely, completely resonant with her own as it pulsed in waves through his body and into her own. Were a human to see him in this form, they would no doubt be repulsed but she owed it to her son to leave him be at least for now. Her natural instinct as a mother was to everything in her power to protect her child but she couldn’t help but feel guilty that she would have to hide her child’s true form from the world, not for his own benefit, but because the world wouldn’t be able to accept him.

So overcome with emotion and so very tired, she sobbed as she stared into the deep black eyes of the most beautiful child she had ever seen.

 “Hello,” she said in a whisper, forgetting the chaos outside that room, only thinking about the two of them in that moment, “it is very nice to meet you. My name is ‘mom’.”

She laughed softly despite herself as the tiny boy gurgled.

“Fancy being born on a night like this, hey?” She twiddled his shockingly tiny fingers in her own, appreciating the warmth that tickled through her hands as the baby emanated magic, not yet able to control his powers. “If you can survive this night, you can survive anything, my little man.”

Hours passed until morning as she watched her son as he slept peacefully. The only thing keeping her awake was the energy that seeped from him and into her. No one had come to her aid just yet and, though she felt herself dwindling into a deep sleep, she was immensely grateful for the alone time she had been awarded her child.

“What shall we call you then?” She asked, almost as though she would actually receive an answer.

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t thought about this before.

This child was not only her own and the boy’s father had been delighted by the news that he would be part of a new family. He had known emphatically what he had wanted to call his first son and Jennie had vowed to fulfil his request. Even more so when she had heard of her life partner’s untimely death.

When one’s life was supposedly everlasting, having it taken away from you is even more hard-hitting. Jennie had never known loss before and she had planned to live and love her soulmate forever until the world burnt up and fairies ceased to exist in any dimension. Sadly, humans, who knew more about death than any species in existence and lived with death around every corner had taken the life of the father of her son. It was the same humans she had been running away from ever since.

That was the reason she had no choice but to fulfil the only thing her love had ever asked of her. One didn’t want for much when they had eternity ahead of them but the least she could give her late love was this.

She smiled at her child again, “I suppose we’re going to have to call you Baekhyun.”

On that day, Baekhyun Byun, a fairy of the Sycamore realm in the Orion constellation was born. 


	7. Part Two - Seothin seo Ho

“Baekhyun! For the love of Orion could you come home on time at least once in your eternal life?!” His mother scolded him as her child nervously shifted in the kitchen of their country house in the Welsh village of Porthmadog.

Three weeks after she had given birth, Jennie had been rehoused by the old woman at the home. The kind sorceress had caught wind that there was another young woman living in the Welsh mountains – a hundred and fifty-year-old soothsayer – who had also recently given birth to a son of her own. It was felt by everyone that it would be much safer for Jennie and Baekhyun to reside there, at least until the end of the war.

Nineteen years later, the war with Germany was long over but Jennie was fighting battles every day with a boy who, in human terms was a man who needed the freedom to grow and cause mischief, but to Jennie – who for the first time in her incredibly long life was beginning to look a day over thirty from the stress – was still too wet behind the ears.

“If not that, could you come home on the same day you leave?!”

Baekhyun had grown to be a fine young man. He had his mother’s stunning looks and, in his human form, he quite literally stopped traffic. The old ladies in the village practically threw their granddaughters at him whenever he was in sight. Much to the grief of his already fraught mother, Baekhyun had other ideas.

“Don’t tell me you were with that Taemin boy again…”

She wasn’t angry per se, just deathly worried. It would be just her luck to live on earth for one hundred years without any suspicions that she was a fairy, only for her son to come along and be found out for being ‘gay’ as the humans so unceremoniously put it.

“Oh, so that’s how it is then, mom?” He snapped suddenly. If her son had acquired nothing else from his mother, he had definitely got her strong will and argumentative spirit, “I had you down as a lot of things but prejudiced was never one of them!”

“How dare you?!” She dreaded to think what ‘things’ her son thought of her, “surely you know that isn’t what I mean.”

One of the things that had always baffled her about humans was their rules about relationships. Fairies placed very little value on gender but so much more on the gift of love. All fairies were equal, not even the ruler of each fairy realm received more respect than anyone else. To her, the fact that her son had fallen for another young man meant nothing but, living as a human, his love could cost him his life. This was without considering what would happen if the human boy found out that Baekhyun was a fairy. 

This thought saddened her greatly.

Her son sensed this and he made his way over to her, wrapping her in his arms, “don’t worry, mom. We’re being careful. _I’m being careful._ He doesn’t suspect a thing. In fact, I’d like you to meet him. He’s really lovely mom. He is so, so kind.”

Jennie smiled at her son’s bashful smile. It would be obvious to anyone that he was absolutely smitten. One of Baekhyun’s best qualities was his enormous heart. She could only hope that it wouldn’t also be one of his greatest downfalls in such an unforgiving world.

“I would like that very much,” and she meant it. She had to make a lot of sacrifices in her life, but her son’s happiness was not going to be one of them.

They let go of each other then and moved on to preparing some food. Fairies can’t eat human food, nor can humans eat fairy food without dire consequences, but Jennie and Baekhyun enjoyed preparing lavish meals. Luckily the other mother and son duo who shared their home could eat human food so that gave them the perfect excuse to dabble in the kitchen.

Just in time, Cecilia and her dashing son Kyungsoo Do walked through the front door carrying baskets of fresh vegetables from the market.

“Good afternoon, Ms Kwon,” Kyungsoo said politely as he handed her the basket of produce, “is that a new dress you are wearing? It has such a lovely pattern.”

He inspected it closely, genuinely interested as he absently pushed his round glasses up his nose. The glasses were the first pair his mother had been able to afford – not without the help of her close friend, Jennie – and Kyungsoo hadn’t yet got over how sharp everything looked. Two weeks ago, the pattern on Jennie’s dress would have been a blur of blues and pinks but, now, he could clearly make out every flower on the fabric.

“Erm, hello there Christian “D.O.” fashion expert, are you missing someone?” Baekhyun obnoxiously waved his arms in front of his friend’s face to grab his attention.

Kyungsoo ignored the annoying man-child for a few seconds for his own amusement’s sake before rolling his eyes, “Hello, Baekhyun. Is that a new jumper?” he asked with a cheeky grin.

“I didn’t know you had the spare money for a jumper, Baekhyun dear,” his mother said with a tone of annoyed sarcasm, “why didn’t you tell me you had had a sudden windfall?”

Kyungsoo smirked annoying at Baekhyun and raised his eyebrows knowingly. “Yeah, Baekhyun darling. That isn’t a cheap sweater, either. Is it cashmere? Mother! Ms. Kwon! Baekhyun should absolutely treat us to a meal since he is rolling in so much money.”

Kyungsoo knew, of course, that the sweater was Taemin’s. Only Taemin would have the money to afford such an item given that his family owned a local slate- mining firm along the railway and, understandably, were rolling in it.  Cecilia and Jennie knew this, too of course. Cecilia had seen in a vision that a young man was going to come into Baekhyun’s life and could easily put two and two together. Jennie had a sharp mother’s instinct, as well as having washed every item of her son’s clothing meaning that she knew what she had and hadn’t come across before.

That didn’t stop Baekhyun from trying to wriggle his way out of the situation though. “I found it in a charity shop…”

“I doubt Taemin would appreciate you referring to yourself as some kind of charity case,” Kyungsoo said nonchalantly, knowing already that Baekhyun would explode at him. Not because he had known his friend for 19 years but because Kyungsoo could see into the future, just like his mother.

“Hey! Shut up, Soo!” Baekhyun grabbed an apple out of the basket and lobbed it at his friend who had already reached up to grab it before the other man had even lifted his arm to release it. “My God, nothing is fun with you around,” Baekhyun said, not meaning it in the slightest.

“You know you love me really,” Kyungsoo teased, rustling his friend’s hair.

The four of them began cooking the dinner, even though only two of them would actually eat it. Kyungsoo expertly chopped the vegetables while Jennie cooked a delicious stew. Cecilia laid the table with precision; just like her son, she took great pride in even the smallest of things, never missing a detail, never putting a foot out of line. It was to be expected, really, of two people who knew every of every event before it happened. Besides, Cecilia had also left behind her home and everything she once knew for the sake of her child. Being able to manage a home with any semblance of normalcy was a great privilege to her and she would forever be grateful.

Baekhyun just made a pot of tea. He was helpless in the kitchen but he didn’t want to feel useless so this was his way of contributing. It meant that Kyungsoo hadn’t made his own cup of tea in about 10 years and was a way for two young men whose powers made them completely self-sufficient to share something mundane. Something so simple was something they cherished.

“So, Kyungsoo, dear,” Jennie asked as they sat around the table finishing off the pot of tea while Baekhyun and his mother sipped at an unusual concoction made from the pollen of a flower which only bloomed in their fairy realm. They had gratefully received it from a young apothecarist, Wenkang Zhang, who had acquired it on his travels. He was a member of a select group of humans who were permitted to travel between the human and fairy realms to gather resources. “Do you have a sweetheart?”

Baekhyun spat his drink everywhere, only to be scolded by his mother for wasting such a precious resource. Kyungsoo looked unperturbed by the question and just shook his head. He had surrendered his heart to a certain obnoxious fairy who, unfortunately, had always had more of thing for humans.

“Kyungsoo has to focus on his studies, mom. Geniuses don’t _have_ sweethearts,” Baekhyun explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What about that lovely Sarah girl, dear?” Cecilia asked, “she has certainly taken a liking to you and I thought you liked her, too?”

Kyungsoo had a fling with Sarah the previous summer. She was a lovely girl and he most definitely liked her back but upon realising that the feelings he had for a certain young man were much too strong, he had called it off. He felt silly, really. Baekhyun was gorgeous. Indescribably beautiful. There wasn’t a girl – or Kyungsoo, apparently – who didn’t have feelings for him. Yet the notion that Kyungsoo meant so much to Baekhyun, as he knew he did, gave him a false sense of hope.

“It didn’t really work out, mom,” Kyungsoo said with a sigh, “there’s plenty more fish in the sea.”

“You know that’s my job to say that,” his mom chuckled.

“I guessed you’d say that so I was just saving you the trouble,” he shrugged.

Then the topic immediately turned to Baekhyun and Taemin. This was probably the only household in the whole of Britain where such a conversation would be had so freely. The thought made Kyungsoo’s heart deflate in his chest.

“He is honestly really great,” Baekhyun said for the umpteenth time, “we go for walks and he takes me dancing. He has his own house you know? I know he is only two years older than me but he is so _old._ He wakes up at 6 am every day to _read_. It’s madness.”

His mom raised her eyebrows, “and how would you know that?”

The thought of Baekhyun waking up next to someone else made Kyungsoo’s blood boil with jealousy. It wasn’t like he didn’t know that’s where Baekhyun vanished when he didn’t come home for days on end, much to the grief of his mother. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

Baekhyun just rolled his eyes, refusing to take the bait. He just lifted his hands in the air and used his powers to bring a book from the shelf in the living room. It was a book about astrology that he had been dipping in and out of for the past week or so. Even though his mother had raised him teaching him all there was to know about spirituality, magic, fortune telling, the afterlife, and the gods (all of which are real), he had a fascination with the human perspective on a version of the universe they had no chance of understanding.

“HEY! What have I told you about using your powers when the curtains are open!?” His mother screamed at him in sheer horror.

She lost so much sleep worrying about her son’s carelessness. Even as a child he would go around the village bringing flowers back to life as they wilted in the winter cold. He also went through a phase of teaching the children in his class at school the language of his mother’s realm which caused quite the confusion among the other parents. The constant worry that her son would accidentally reveal his markings or use his magic would have sent Jennie to an early grave had she been capable of dying.

“Sorry, mom.”

The four of them sat there for a few hours that evening as the autumn sun set behind the clouds. Baekhyun was reading his book, Kyungsoo was studying, and the two mothers were just idly chatting about everything and nothing at the same time.

Around eleven o’clock, Kyungsoo announced that someone was heading for the house.

“I have a bad feeling it’s Taemin,” he elaborated which caused Baekhyun to frown at him in confusion. While Baekhyun was very open about his relationship, Taemin was less so. He had a very good reputation that preceded him and he was all about keeping up appearances. That’s why his presence at Baekhyun’s home was so shocking.

Baekhyun grabbed his coat and kissed his mother goodbye before heading out of the house. As usual, no one had a clue when he would come back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo didn’t sleep at all that night. His mind was spinning which made him anxious. He knew something bad was coming but he couldn’t quite work out what. Being just 19 years of age, he hadn’t had enough time to master to his powers, not to the extent his mother had. This also meant that he hadn’t had time to learn how to filter his visions so he was often bombarded with images that he couldn’t piece together.

A similar thing was happening that night. He kept having visions of hordes of people charging across fields, alternating with images of Baekhyun and Taemin having a very heated conversation, before everything went white. Then the same scenes would repeat over, and over again. It was very unnerving.

The visions were making him so uncomfortable that he decided to talk to his mom about them. If anyone would be able to help him channel what he was seeing it would be Cecilia. So, he rolled out of his bed, grabbed his glasses and made his way down the hall to his mother’s room.

Just as he was about to open the door to his mother’s room, Kyungsoo heard a rumbling sound approaching the house, along with what sounded like a crowd of voices. He couldn’t recall there being any kind of fete or village gathering that evening which made it all the more unusual. He never went to those things but his mother always did. The people in the village loved her, almost as much as they loved Baekhyun.

It seemed the two women in the house had also heard the ruckus because they both came out of their rooms in their nightgowns with concerned looks on their faces.

“What’s happening, mama?” Kyungsoo was becoming terrified. He longed for his mother to wrap him in her arms and tell him everything would be alright. He prayed that, wherever Baekhyun was, he was safe. He saw in Ms. Kwon’s eyes that she feared the one thing she had escaped from nineteen years ago was coming to dish out the same fate that they had with her lover once again. Kyungsoo had a sickening feeling that she was right.

He told the two women to wait where they were – which they didn’t, of course – as he walked down to the kitchen to peer out of the window. The sight that met his eyes made his blood run icy cold.

“No,” Jennie chocked out, her knees buckling below her, “no, no, no, no, no.” She was clearly losing her mind in the terror of it all. The normally feisty, strong-willed woman knew she was staring into the face of death. What was worse, she had no idea where her only child was. He could already be dead, a mere baby, and she wouldn’t have a chance of saving him.

Cecilia crouched down on the ground before her friend and grasped onto her shoulders tightly, “Jen, listen to me. You have to pull yourself together! There must be something you can do! You are a fairy for Orion’s sake!! You are capable of more evil deceit than these imbeciles can ever imagine. Show them how powerful you can truly be!”

Jennie pulled herself to her feet, barely able to process what she was doing, before she released herself from her human form. For anyone who had never seen it before, it would have been awfully shocking. She no longer looked like the young human woman she willed herself to be, but a god awful monster, filled with the rage and fear of a mother who had lost the father of her child and maybe even her only son. She bore her dozens of sharp teeth as her veins pulsed beneath her papery skin and she flapped her wings once, twice, and three times to gain momentum before thrashing out of the window to meet the crowd.

A sob lodged itself in her throat as she saw all of her friends, everyone she had ever cared about since she uprooted her life and moved to the mountains, approaching her door like something out of a witch hunt. They weren’t quite so cliché as to have torches and pitchforks, but they were bearing poles of what she assumed to be silver. She vaguely remembered that local shops had been offering sums of money for old silver jewellery to melt down and she violently scolded herself for not putting two and two together.

An elderly woman called Mrs Jones reached her first, fire and fury in the eyes of her son’s old school teacher so strong it was hard to believe she had once been like a grandmother to her child, teaching him to speak Welsh when Jennie herself could not and telling him stories from the mountains. Now, the old woman adorned a silver spike which she would no doubt try to kill Baekhyun’s mother with.

“It’s time to give up, you _filthy monster!_ ” She cried which earned her a cheer from the entire village. Looking very proud of herself, she held the spike out towards where Jennie’s heart sat, thumping out of control, “you are a filthy woman! You have a filthy son, too! A monster and a pervert!! A double whammy if I ever heard one. You should have done a better job raising him, really. To think I ever wasted my time…” she trailed off as her voice was drained out by the laughing crowd.

“Please,” Jennie sobbed, all signs of the monster within her gone as the emotions she had learned from humans (the only good thing they had) took over her, “please, please don’t hurt my baby boy. You can take me. Take me right here but please don’t hurt him. Or Kyungsoo,” she added without hesitation as the young man stood in the doorway of his home, his mother by his side, “don’t hurt either of the boys. Surely you have that much love in you. Please.”

She would have pleaded all night long. She was grovelling and it was pathetic, honestly. She was such a powerful woman who had more life in her than all of these humans combined, who had learned to love so deeply during her time on earth to the point where she had unlearned the deviance of her own kind. It would be her downfall today, she realised as her blood-red tears fell from her eyes in front of all of these people.

Her death was incredibly unceremonious. She stood with open arms as an old woman she had once called her friend drove a spike through her heart, and she fell to the ground without a cry or a scream. She made no effort to put up a fight, too fearful that a wrong move may have negative repercussions for the people she cared about. She heard her friend foolishly rush to her side, only to meet the same fate. It was awful, really. Her friend died almost immediately because, unlike the fairy woman, it wasn’t the silver that killed her which is a long and painful process, but the force of the weapon.

The worst part of the whole ordeal, and the final proof she needed that humans were unforgiving towards anyone they did not understand, was the sight of the young Sarah girl making her way up to Kyungsoo with a bottle in her hands.

She had been given the sickening honour of having her way with a young man who had only ever cared for her dearly. Jennie could only watch as the young woman approached him and threw some kind of liquid onto his face. She yelled above the crowd something about taking away his powers. How could he see into the future if he couldn’t even see?

 _Stupid humans_. Of course that wasn’t how it worked. Kyungsoo would be able to see into the future for the rest of eternity except now, he would live without a mother, and without his sight. Possibly without even a friend.

Jennie lay on the ground helplessly as she felt every inch of her body die in turn. She watched as Kyungsoo fell to the ground, searching for his mother, too in shock to cry or to react at all.

Jennie’s final thought process before she closed her eyes for the last time was that Kyungsoo would be okay. He was so incredibly intelligent, perfectly capable of making a life for himself, and there was no way that he would let the world treat him as poorly as it had treated his mother. She also thought of her son. She knew deep down that he was out there somewhere, alive and breathing. She didn’t want to think about him discovering his mother was dead, so she didn’t.

She took comfort in the fact that the two boys would have each other. She smiled upon remembering the undying love the two boys shared. She knew Cecilia would have known this too. She contentedly sighed at the thought that there would one day be a life for her boys beyond hiding and running away.

She used her last breath speaking her love for her son into the universe before her eternal life tipped the balance into an eternal sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baekhyun felt so at home in Taemin’s arms. They lay wrapped together under the blankets of the older man’s king sized bed which was such a luxury to Baekhyun.

He lifted his head to meet Taemin’s eyes, smiling softly before leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his lips. They stayed there for a while, just enjoying each other’s company, sharing loving kisses and Baekhyun felt as though he couldn’t be happier anywhere else.

Taemin shared the same loving gaze, his eyes clouding over as Baekhyun deepened the kiss and moved to lay above the other man. He stared down into his eyes and giggled dizzily.

“I think I love you, you big softie,” he said as he felt a hand draw his hair out of his eyes.

Taemin didn’t reply. He just looked up at Baekhyun with a coy smile.

“Well…I won’t take your silence personally.”

Baekhyun meant it though and he genuinely couldn’t believe his luck finding such a wonderful man. He even knew about his…secret.

His mother would kill him if she knew but it had just happened. They were in the middle of a rather intense evening of…lovemaking… when Baekhyun completely forgot he was supposed to be maintaining his human form. He didn’t even know what made him let his guard down but it just happened. He often switched forms at home simply because he could, not because he had a sensible reason. Sometimes he would do it to shock his mother, or to make Kyungsoo laugh (he could do this really freaky thing with his natural eyes which made them look like they were flashing in Morse code which the other young man found amusing for some reason).

So, when he was in a completely relaxed state, in the arms of the man he loved, it just came naturally to him.

The other man hadn’t even seemed shocked, much to Baekhyun’s surprise so he did it all the time. He even showed Taemin the weird Morse code trick and taught him some words in his native tongue, one he could only converse in with his mother. He let him admire his wings as they lay in bed together and he allowed the other man to pepper kisses along the veins any other human would no doubt find repulsive.

On this particular day, Taemin was eerily quiet. Something particularly uncomfortable for a chatterbox like Baekhyun.

He started to place light kisses along the other man’s chest, hoping to relax him out of his agitated state but he was stopped as Taemin’s hand reached for his wrists.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Taemin said with a tremor in his voice, “I need to tell you something and I need you to listen to me until I’ve finished…promise me, Baekie?”

Baekhyun lifted himself up and moved to sit next to Taemin, not caring that there wasn’t even a sheet covering him; this man had seen everything there was to see by this point and his human form wasn’t his true self anyway so he attached no shame to it. Later, he wished he hadn’t heard Taemin’s next words while he was so vulnerable.

“The townspeople…” Taemin started, pushing Baekhyun’s hands away sadly when he tried to comfort him, “…they know…”

Baekhyun assumed he meant about them being together which, while this wasn’t a problem for him not being a human meaning he technically couldn’t be incarcerated, it was a huge problem for Taemin. He felt sick to his stomach at the thought of his boyfriend suffering so greatly for something that his mother had always told him was completely normal, natural, and so incredibly pure. It was then that he started to shed tears on the other man’s behalf.

“My sweet, don’t fret,” he began, “we can escape to a place far from here where no one knows us and we can be together. You know I love you and would never let harm come to you and- “

“NO. You don’t understand…they don’t know about me, I mean us, they know about _you.”_

“They know I am gay but not that you are?” Well, that was a massive sack of shit but still better than the alternative.

 _“No._ They know about _you.”_

He didn’t understand for a moment. Taemin watched him guiltily as the cogs turned in his mind until it finally clicked and rage shot through Baekhyun like wildfire.

“You fucking piece of shit _bastard_!” Baekhyun had never been angry before in his life. Fairies have to learn human emotions through imitation because fairies themselves are evil, mischievous, deceitful creatures, incapable of feeling much else, but anger had not yet come in handy. Right then, however, he felt utterly murderous.

“I’m so, so sorry Baek!”

“Fucking save it! I don’t want to listen to your bullshit. I can’t believe I trusted you. If anything happens to my mother because of you I will kill you, you know that right? You must fucking know that because I love her. You, however? I don’t fucking think so.” He spat at Taemin’s feet and stood to put his clothes on, feeling so ashamed and so, so stupid.

“No, you don’t understand. I didn’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t want to hear it, you bastard.”

“No! Please listen to me,” Taemin was running around Baekhyun like an idiot, completely naked and utterly panicking, “they already knew! They have all known for absolutely ages. I already knew!”

Baekhyun should have known. He did think, after all, that Taemin’s reaction was too underwhelming.

“Well then why didn’t you tell me?!” Baekhyun could barely breathe.

“Because I was part of their whole plan!”

Baekhyun willed Taemin to just shut up. He didn’t want to hear whatever Taemin was about to say, if he did, he might throw up. He didn’t have the luxury of running away now he thought his mother was in danger so he had no choice but to listen.

“The townspeople asked me to pretend to be your boyfriend…to get close to you to…”

Baekhyun actually did throw up. He vomited all over the floor and, when the content of his stomach was emptied, he just wretched. Unfortunately, Taemin was too dense to stop talking.

“I-I didn’t expect to fall in love with you, though!” He really dropped the ‘l’ bomb while the man he supposedly loved used all of his energy trying not to pass out, his vision turning starry as blood rushed through his ears, “they all think we meet up once in a while to chat with the odd bit of…hand-holding they don’t know how much I _care about you.”_

This made something snap inside of Baekhyun, “that is a fucking joke!” He grabbed Taemin by the neck and used his immense strength to push him up the wall, “you don’t care about me and don’t ever, EVER, try to convince yourself that you do. Have some self-respect, Taemin, for the love of Orion!”

To say he didn’t consider strangling Taemin then would be a slight lie but he still loved him, despite everything. He was just a stupid man who had done a really, really stupid thing and taking Taemin’s life wouldn’t save his own. If he did survive, he would have to live with the guilt for all of eternity which was a thought he couldn’t stomach.

So, he dropped him and left him there. Naked. Crying. Alone.

Then he ran.  

He had never run so fast in his life.

When he gained enough speed, he opened his wings and shot into the sky.

At the speed of sound, he shot across the village he had called his home and over the mountains.

When he reached his house and the sad sight met his eyes, his wings fell limp and he dropped to the ground, snapping back into his human form once again.

He was too late.

Had he not already vomited earlier, he certainly would have now.

His mother was laying on the ground, completely limp, all of the life zapped out of her still form. He stumbled over to her, dropping to her side, forcing magic through his hands. He prayed that he would feel some feedback from his mother’s body but he knew he was wasting his time. He merely felt the waves flow out of him and into her, no resonance at all. Nothing. She was gone. Forever.

Forever was such a long time to live without your mother.

He didn’t have the energy to cry or to even think about anything else. He was so tired and all he wanted was to lay beside his mother one more time before her body was taken away to who knows where. So he did. He lay there staring at his mother’s still face until the sun came up, drifting into a dreamless sleep.

 

He awoke to the sound of someone crying. It startled him because he was convinced everyone had been killed but didn’t have the willpower to face death in the face once again that day. He didn’t want to have to look for the body of his only friend.

He lifted his tired body off the ground and turned to see none other than Kyungsoo, sitting a few feet away from his own mother, sobbing softly.

“Oh my God, Kyungsoo!”

“Baekhyun! Baekhyun is that you?! Where are you?” He didn’t move an inch, not even turning his head to see Baekhyun walking over to him in a hurry.

“I’m here, you silly fool,” Baekhyun said as relief flooded him. He leapt into Kyungsoo’s arms in his sheer joy only to be met with a cry of terror.

“Hey, Soo. Forgive the stupid question but are you alright?”

“No,” he sighed, “you made me jump.”

It was then that Baekhyun properly looked at Kyungsoo’s face. More specifically, he looked at his eyes. The thing with Kyungsoo’s eyes is that they always held so much life. He was a man of so few words that he relied on his eyes to show people how he was feeling. Now, his eyes just stared ahead of him into space.

He couldn’t see.

“Those bastards.” That was all Baekhyun said. There was nothing else he could say so he instead held onto Kyungsoo’s hands and asked, “is it alright if I hug you? I just don’t want to…startle you again.”

Kyungsoo smiled despite everything that had happened and held his arms out to his friend.

Baekhyun shuffled to lean into his side and directed his gaze towards the mountains and away from his home and his mother and Kyungsoo’s mother…he wanted to be able to forget, if only for a few moments.

“Just so you know,” he said as he straightened out Kyungsoo’s very messy hair with his hands, “I don’t pity you. If I did, I know you would be mad at me. So…I don’t.”

Kyungsoo tutted, “thanks.”

“I guess you won’t be needing those glasses anymore…”

“Piss off, Baekhyun.” His words were cutting, after all the comment was completely insensitive but he knew what Baekhyun was trying to do. He was trying to make the situation normal. He wanted to Kyungsoo to know that nothing would change between them. So Kyungsoo struggled to hide his smile.

“We’ll be alright, Baekhyun.”

“Yeah. We’ll be okay, Soo.”

 

 

 

 

The young men, maybe recklessly, didn’t leave their home right away. They expected the people of the village to return to claim the bodies of their mothers; they doubted they would be allowed the time to mourn, to bury their loved ones or to lead a funeral. They were thought of as monsters, after all, and no monster could possibly need time to grieve before their kin were taken away to be treated like some kind of freak show.

The first thing they did was carry the lifeless forms of their mothers to the back garden of the small cottage and lay them side by side on the grass. Kyungsoo sat beside his mother, running his fingers through her hair, secretly glad that he would never have to see his mother in such an awful state, but also devastated that he didn’t have the opportunity to see her face one last time, to memorise her features.

Baekhyun, no longer trying to hide his powers, used his magic to grow hundreds of flowers on every inch of the grass around the two women. He planted flowers of every kind: tulips, lilies, foxgloves, roses, and carnations, making sure to plant a rainbow of colour. With every plant that sprouted from the ground in a puff of smokey powder, Baekhyun told his friend the flower and its colour, hoping that Kyungsoo would at least be able to picture the garden, hopefully taking comfort in the notion that his mother hadn’t just been left to lay there.

When it wasn’t possible to plant a single flower more in the ground, Baekhyun grew some in the palms of his hands and entwined them into his mother’s beautiful long hair. Then he made his way over to Kyungsoo and guided the other man’s hands through his own mother’s hair, allowing him to do the same.

“This is custom in my mother’s fairy realm,” Baekhyun explained softly as he guided Kyungsoo’s hands around a cluster of cherry blossoms, helping him to weave them into his mother’s hair, “it symbolises that even death can bear new life, that nothing ever truly dies. These flowers will live forever in their place.”

Kyungsoo didn’t say anything. He just let his hands be guided as he smiled softly, using every fibre of his being to hold himself together. He couldn’t cry. His mother wouldn’t want him to cry. So, he just focused on his hands weaving in and out of his mother’s hands, Baekhyun’s own delicate hands following closely behind.

Baekhyun filled the quiet air with the soft melodies of a song then. The young man had a captivating singing voice, as all fairies did, and the gentle refrain entirely filled the air around them, forcing it to swim with a warmth which breezed against Kyungsoo’s skin, relaxing every muscle in his tired body, and making his tired eyes grow heavy. The wind picked up and rushed through the leaves of the trees, through the hundreds of delicate flowers, and up towards the heavens. Towards the constellation of Orion where Baekhyun’s estranged grandparents would soon be learning of the death of their child.

Kyungsoo breathed deeply, beckoning calm to fill his lungs, as he just sat and listened.

_Óho óho óho mo leana  
Óho mo leana ina chodladh gan brón._

_Ar mhullach an tí_  
Tá síógí geala  
Faoi chaoin-ré an earraigh  
Ag imirt ‘s ag ól  
Is seo hiad aniar iad  
A' glaoch ar mo leana  
Le súil is a mhealladh  
Isteach sa lios mór

Baekhyun’s voice sounded so beautiful that I brought tears to Kyungsoo’s eyes. The words stirred up warmth inside him as they dripped with magical energy. Such serenity was desperately needed after such a horrific night.

The song was one Kyungsoo had heard many times before, ever since he was a child. It was a children’s lullaby, _Seoithín Seó,_ a lullaby sang by fairy mothers to their sleeping children. Though he was not the son of a fairy, he had partly been raised by one and, on particularly sleepless nights when his mind was racing with thoughts neither he nor his mother could control, Jennie would sing this song to him. It never failed to slow down his racing mind.

He vaguely knew what the song meant, and the story it told so he spoke the words back to his mother in words she would have understood, as he sat by her side.

“ _Oh, my child,  
 Oh my child asleep without any care_

 _On the roof of the house_  
There are bright fairies,  
Playing and drinking  
Under the gentle rays  
Here they come  
To call my child out  
Wishing to draw him  
Into the fairy mound.”

Baekhyun didn’t falter in his singing as he turned to smile at his friend, his eyes glowing but filling with hot tears upon realising that his friend understood at least some of his language. It reminded him that he hadn’t lost everything and that he still had someone to allow the life he had just lost to live on. After all, nothing truly dies.

The second verse takes the listener through the heart of a mother as she describes her young son as a treasure, a guileless jewel, and a portion of life. That’s what they both were as two sons; they were portions of the lives of their mother’s. They were there to carry on living with their mother’s influence within them, Baekhyun’s mother in the form of her magic in his veins and Kyungsoo’s mother in the form of the miraculous gift they both shared.

“ _Go n-éirí do chodladh leat,”_ Baekhyun whispered close to his mother’s ear, placing a kiss as delicate as the wings of a butterfly on her cold cheek.

“Sleep soundly and well,” Kyungsoo repeated in his own native tongue, his sadness returning now that the soft music had ceased. He began to cry once more then. Of course, he cried out of sadness but he also cried out of relief in some strange way. He was incredibly grateful to have been able to properly say goodbye.

Baekhyun sniffed in a dramatic fashion very in character for him and rose to his feet, “right. No more being sad because, if my mother could see me like this, she would absolutely laugh at me and I am not giving her the pleasure.”

Kyungsoo knew that Baekhyun was just as crushed as he was but this was just Baekhyun’s way. He lived to make other people happy, he _hated_ feeling sad (especially hated his mother being sad), and he was a true believer in living every second of one’s life to the fullest. The devastation he had felt that morning didn’t destroy his resolve, it only made him stronger.

“What are we going to do now?” Kyungsoo asked much less enthusiastically. He didn’t have the same mental strength as Baekhyun but he knew they couldn’t stay around for much longer.

“We’ll have to leave,” Baekhyun said it so matter-of-factly like Kyungsoo should have just assumed that’s what they were going to do. “We’ll pack our bags and we’ll leave. There is nothing here for us anymore…”

“What about Taemin?” Kyungsoo knew he shouldn’t have asked but they didn’t really have the time for subtleties.

He was met with complete silence. He should have known…

“You told him, didn’t you?”

More silence.

Kyungsoo could have lost his entire mind right then and no one would have blamed him. The man had lost almost everything that night and to hear from his own friend that it could have been prevented made him feel nausea like he had never felt before.

He didn’t tell Baekhyun how utterly stupid he thought he had been, though, because he wasn’t the only one hurting immensely. Baekhyun had also seen his entire world crumble in the space of a few hours. He was just a stupid boy with a heart that was too big and a mind to naïve to survive in such a cruel, cruel world.

Instead, Kyungsoo just held out his arms for another hug. The universe knew they both needed one.

“I’m so, so sorry,” was all Baekhyun said before standing in silence clinging onto his friend for a few more minutes.


	8. Part Two - Rebirth

After walking for the rest of the day, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun ended up a few towns over. It was getting really cold and their bags were getting way too heavy to manage (Baekhyun had insisted on carrying every single one of his mother’s books in his suitcase in lieu of any actual clothes). Not to mention the fact that Kyungsoo was feeling incredibly stressed out. Walking towards an unknown location with your entire life in one bag would be difficult enough at the best of times but he was being led through the dark.

He had Baekhyun holding tightly onto his hand, describing every inch of the scene in front of them, not leaving out a single street sign, shop, or pet dog tottering past them almost as though he had been doing so for his entire life, but it was still unnerving. The soothsayer could even picture the roads in his mind because he had been receiving images of them in his mind all morning before they left, but it didn’t help him much. He knew what the streets would look like at some undisclosed time in the future, not what they looked like now.

Baekhyun decided that they would stop off in the next town and find a pub to stop in and rest their aching feet and fill their empty stomachs. After a few more minutes of walking, they chanced upon a quaint little pub just outside a small seaside town. The pub’s name had something to do with sailor’s and sirens but neither man would be able to recall its exact name.

Until the bell rang for last orders, the two men sat propping up the bar but without drinking a drop of alcohol: Baekhyun couldn’t touch the stuff given that it was meant for humans and Kyungsoo didn’t trust himself to stop drinking if he started. They just sat there instead, daunted by the prospect that they had to make decisions that would impact them for the rest of their lives within the next few days.

Where would they go?

What would they do with their lives?

How would they sustain themselves?

Baekhyun was sat pulling his hair out of his scalp in sheer stress and anxiety while Kyungsoo mindlessly ripped some nuts he had no appetite for into pieces.

“What are we going to do, Soo?” Kyungsoo didn’t entertain him with an answer because it was the hundredth time that night that he had been asked that question and he didn’t have the energy to go through the whole rigmarole of answering again.

Then he felt a hand roughly shaking his arm.

“Baekhyun? Baekhyun!? What’s happening?!” He asked in a panicked voice. Wasn’t his friend supposed to be posing as his eyes and warning him about strange people grabbing him in deserted bars?

“No, no, no, Soo!” Oh. It was just Baekhyun. “Behind the bar…erm, oh my God! There’s a notice about a house share in London! We could really do it, Soo! We could run away, shake this shithole out of our hair for good! My mom lived in London when she first came here and she has told me _countless_ times about all of the communities of people just like us in the city…Soo? What do you think?”

 

They spent the entire decade of the 1960s living in that house. It was a disgustingly gaudy house, too. The two men shared a double bed in a single room on the bottom floor of the dingy terrace. The room had clearly been intended as a living room judging by the fireplace on the one wall and their privacy was regularly invaded by the at least one of the other six young men who rented rooms in the house when they needed to warm their hands and feet.

Most of the other residents were industrial factory workers, apart from Billy who had taken a step up in the world and worked as an estate agent. No one knew why Billy felt the need to rent a tiny room in such a crowded house but, honestly, no one ever questioned why anyone else lived in that house. Maybe Billy was lonely and wanted company. Maybe Billy was running away from something. Most of the men in that house were running away from something. They were all hiding something.

The “don’t ask don’t tell” policy did Kyungsoo and Baekhyun a huge favour, really. Although it goes without saying that they couldn’t tell anyone about their powers, they still had a surprising amount of freedom. No one questioned why two twenty-year-old men had appeared from the Welsh mountains completely out of the blue without so much as a toothbrush to their names, they just accepted them with open arms.

Nor did anyone question the peculiar noises that came from the downstairs bedroom; Baekhyun still used his powers in seclusion but, on the odd occasion, he lost control which led to books and glasses falling all over the place. Presumably, people put it down to Kyungsoo’s lack of orientation and thought nothing of it. Little did they know, Kyungsoo had no issues with orientation at all and he loathed that the other men pitied him, the ‘poor blind lost boy’ whose best friend dragged him around because he ‘felt sorry for him.’ If Baekhyun hadn’t convinced him that they needed the cover-up, Kyungsoo would have given the other housemates piece of his mind.

Their life wasn’t what it had been before because they weren’t even free to be themselves in the privacy of their own home but they were more grateful for the fresh start than they had imagined they could be. They had left a lot of skeletons in the closet back in Wales but, in London, all of their problems felt so distant. They had eternity to find closure but they had already found it in only ten years.

Another good thing to come out of the ‘60s was Baekhyun’s blossoming career as a fortune teller. Unfortunately for Baekhyun, psychic abilities were not part and parcel with the whole ‘fairy’ business, but he had spent the first 25 years of his life reading endless titles written by humans about psychics, fortune tellers, and necromancers so he made an incredibly convincing go of it. In 1965, he bought a second-hand crystal ball and started printing flyers to hand out to housewives in supermarkets and curious teenagers outside of universities and colleges.

He had tried to appoint Kyungsoo as his partner in crime. An actual soothsayer would be quite the gimmick and would certainly eradicate any accusations about him being a conman but, unfortunately, Kyungsoo said no.

“Don’t be such an idiot, Baek,” he said the evening his friend broached the subject. They had the house to themselves by some kind of miracle so Baekhyun was sat at the dining table directing a wooden spoon around a pot of stewing meat on the hob with his magic. Kyungsoo was sat listening to the radio but turned it down to give his friend one of his daily lectures.

“Do you want us to get caught? I am starting to think you do. You can do whatever you want considering you’re not doing anything these human psychics aren’t doing but you aren’t dragging me, an actual psychic, into this business venture.”

So that ignited Baekhyun’s solo career and a very successful career it was to. Most nights he found himself in the front room of another housewife, surrounded by a number of her curious friends, all desperate to hear what the amazing psychic had to say. They lapped the act up like water and it paid quite well, too, earning him up to £50 a week! Even earning himself a column writing horoscopes in Women’s Weekly, he was able to feed Kyungsoo like he was a king.

One thing that didn’t come out of the ‘60s was the safety of a group of non-humans but not for want of trying. Word had gotten around the underground connections about a fairy and a soothsayer being brutally murdered by a mob of humans so most magical folk had gone into hiding. They were mostly living in houses glamoured from human view and, if they weren’t, they weren’t using their powers so no magical energy could be detected in the nearby atmosphere.

Whenever the humidity of the air was low and the static of magic was intensified, Baekhyun would sit on the flat roof of the house (much to the confusion of his housemates) and send out signals, longing for any sign of a response or even the slightest bit of resonance. He came inside empty every time.

It was after six years of trying that Baekhyun learned why.

He had been walking back from a particularly long night in the company of a young woman and her friends when he came across a house with strange energies emanating from it. He almost didn’t notice because he was in such a rush to get home. The air was icy cold and he longed to climb into the bed which would already be occupied by a very warm Kyungsoo and drop into a deep sleep. This energy rattled his bones to strongly for him to walk right past it.

_This house is using wards._

Ward magic – which is the art of deflecting evil magic or any kind of danger – is an art only witches, wizards and the most powerful warlocks were able to carry out. There were no warlocks living in England and that was a fact (they are incredibly elusive creatures who prefer to reside in glamoured residences in the middle of deserts or the icy poles) but the thought of their being witches and wizards nearby excited him greatly.

Maybe they weren’t alone after all.

When he fell asleep snuggled close to his best friend that night, he felt great comfort in the notion that they weren’t alone, that they wouldn’t have to face the unknown by themselves.

 

 

 

 

By the 1970s, they had completely found their feet. They were both in their 30th year by this point but basic glamours enabled them to maintain the look of being in their mid-twenties. The joys that a century of youth could bring were endless.

Baekhyun had bought them their first home in the suburbs of the city, making sure not to move too far away when he knew that there could be company for them waiting so close by. They couldn’t go looking for anyone because that would put all magical folk in danger but he wanted to increase their chances greatly.

They had gotten into the swing of living life as humans by that point. Baekhyun was still thriving as a businessman and life was comfortable.

Something rather surprising happened in the 1970s, however. Something that led Baekhyun and Kyungsoo through until the 2000s. Something that they would not utter a word about to anyone they know now.

It all began one evening when they were both sat watching the TV with the sound down incredibly low. They were both exhausted since Baekhyun had spent the day leading a public talk at a local community centre and Kyungsoo had been busy at home leading his sessions as a personal tutor for rich kids whose parents would pay anything to get them through the school system. They had also had a little bit to drink.

Given that Baekhyun’s system wasn’t attuned to human foods, he had the lowest alcohol tolerance imaginable and, after two sips of wine, he was already very, very tipsy.

With absolutely no inhibitions left, he climbed into Kyungsoo’s lap and nestled his face into his friend’s neck, wrapping his arms tightly around his shoulders.

“I love you so much,” he stated it bluntly. He obviously meant it in the absolutely platonic sense but he wasn’t the only one who was far too drunk.

“I love you too, Baekhyun.”

That was odd, Baekhyun had to admit. He had no doubt that his friend loved him dearly but he never dreamt he would actually _say_ it that bluntly.

He lifted his head to look into his friend’s face, still sitting on his lap when he felt the other man’s hands tentatively reach up to touch either side of Baekhyun’s face.

“Soo…”

“Shut up, Baek.”

Kyungsoo leaned in then, placing his lips gently onto Baekhyun’s own. He missed at first and caught Baekhyun’s nose which made Baekhyun giggle which shocked both of them. It was a bizarre situation but, for some reason, it just felt right. On his second attempt, Kyungsoo hit his desired target and elicited a surprised gasp from the other man.

They allowed their lips to gently move against one another in a slow kiss at first, Kyungsoo’s hands feeling Baekhyun’s face carefully as they did so. They were just getting used to being so close to one another in such an intimate way but neither of them could quite get over how they fit into each other’s arms like a hand in a glove. Nor could they believe how _nice_ it felt. Of course, it made sense. They loved each other. They had done for a long time. Kyungsoo knew he loved Baekhyun as more than a friend and Baekhyun was suddenly beginning to understand how that felt.

Baekhyun was the one who deepened the kiss then, shifting slightly in the other man’s lap so that he could place his hands in his hair. He decided then was a good time to use his magic and so he allowed a glowing warmth to spread through Kyungsoo’s body from his hands, causing the other man to smile and gasp.

“Does that feel good?” Baekhyun asked with a smirk in between kisses as he did it again. He lifted his face away from Kyungsoo’s for a few seconds, losing his breath and asked, “is it okay if I try something?”

Kyungsoo just nodded and moved back towards Baekhyun, kissing him again. Baekhyun found his eagerness amusing but didn’t hesitate to kiss him back. He placed his hands over Kyungsoo’s temples and channelled all of his magic through the palms of his hands until he felt warmth shoot through himself and the other man causing Kyungsoo to gasp.

Colours shot through both of their minds at the same time and the magic flowing through their bodies flowed through them in waves of the same frequency making the kiss they were sharing feel even more intense.

“ _Baekhyun, oh wow,”_ Kyungsoo said breathlessly.

Though the magic wore off after a few hours, their feelings for each other didn’t.

They fell into the motions of being together so naturally, they couldn’t believe they hadn’t done it before.

Baekhyun came home to Kyungsoo every day as he had before and fell asleep beside him as he had for so many years but the kisses they shared under the moonlight and the love that blossomed between them changed everything.

When the 1980s rolled around and the world was starting to become a little bit kinder to them as two men living together and in love, they felt like they could at least breathe a little (even if they still had to live under the mask of being human.) That isn’t to say it was easy.

Baekhyun had thrown himself into the thriving gay scene in London feeling with great passion that, if he had to hide one half of himself behind a mask, he absolutely would not hide any other part of himself in the shadows. He had made countless friends during that time and their home was always bursting at the seams with young men and women who were forever grateful that Baekhyun had exploded into their lives in the only way he knew how and gave them a place to belong. Kyungsoo secretly longed for some peace and quiet but see his love living loudly and proudly as he had wanted to for his whole life made his heart warm.

Devastatingly, the AIDs epidemic ripped their group of friends apart and seeing so many of their friends fall one by one was harrowing for Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, to say the least. Those who live forever are so well acquainted with losing people they care about but these two men were still so young, really, and their friends were taken _far_ too young in such cruel, unforgiving circumstances.

Baekhyun seemingly took the whole thing in his stride just as he seemed to with everything else and fought tooth and nail for his friends’ rights to take care of their loved ones in peace, just as any other person would be entitled to in their situation. He would spend days and days in hospitals fighting for hospital staff to allow young men to see their ill partners when they otherwise wouldn’t be allowed to; after all, their love was not recognised by anyone but themselves. His only credentials in this field were that he had absolutely nothing to lose.

The other gay men his shoes had _so much_ to lose. They had jobs that could suffer over their circumstances, they had lives that wouldn’t last forever and could not, therefore, suffer such injustice. Unlike him, these men did not have until the sun burned up to spend loving their partners. In some small way, he felt guilty for this reason and wanted to use all he had to fight to give others at least a small slice of what he had.

Kyungsoo wasn’t faring as well. His gift had wound up becoming much more of a curse since he had learned to tune his visions more clearly. His newly honed skill meant that he knew exactly who would lose their life next and he couldn’t bear not having the power to do anything about it. Fortunately, he could always confide in Baekhyun who would hold him as tightly as he could every night when the visions became far more vivid.

One night when Kyungsoo’s visions were less intense, the men lay together in bed trying their hardest to just _be._ They wanted to remember what it felt like to just be in each other’s presence without any of their worries plaguing their minds.

Kyungsoo held Baekhyun’s hands in his own as they lay facing each other. He examined every inch of his hands with his own, digging in his memory to picture what they looked like. Baekhyun started into Kyungsoo’s eyes which had always been so beautiful to him. They held so much _life_ in them even though the things he saw – and they were plenty – were only received through the eyes of his mind.

Kyungsoo then moved his hands up towards Baekhyun’s face and he held them gently by his eyes, taking comfort in the soft tickle of his eyelashes brushing on his palms. He smiled softly, contentedly, happily.

“I love you, Baek,” he said barely above a whisper.

“I love you too, Soo. So very much.”

Baekhyun shuffled closer to the other man and kissed him softly. They stayed there for what felt like an eternity, savouring every second. Kyungsoo lifted his hands to place either side of Baekhyun’s face again and stroked his thumbs across his cheeks making Baekhyun giggle.

“That tickles,” he laughed against the other man’s lips.

They lay together for a little while longer, unable to drift off to sleep. It was then that Baekhyun dropped ‘the question.’

“Do you reckon we’ll ever be able to get married?” He pondered as he stroked his hands through his partner’s hair.

“Who knows? These humans are full of surprises.”

Then it hit Baekhyun. Why did they have to wait for the humans to pull themselves together? Why could they not get married the way his people had done since the beginning of time?

He voiced his thoughts to his partner who shot up from his lying position in shock.

“WHAT!?” He couldn’t believe his ears. Was Baekhyun really proposing to him right then and there as he lay in bed with nothing but his tatty t-shirt on? He also couldn’t believe they hadn’t thought of this before.

“Shall I rephrase the question?”

He also shifted into a sitting position and turned Kyungsoo’s head towards him so he could stare into his face as he asked, taking his hands into his own.

“Kyungsoo Do,” he started, “will you do me the honour of marrying me? Like, right now?”

Kyungsoo pretended to think about it for a second which made Baekhyun panic, something that didn’t happen that often.

“Well…”

“Kyungsoo Do! Don’t you dare mess with me!”

Kyungsoo just laughed at him before leaning in to kiss him deeply.

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Yes, you idiot.”

They kissed again, both of them smiling like lovesick fools.

Then Baekhyun took Kyungsoo’s arm and straightened it out.

“So, I’m going to perform the ceremony now,” he explained in a mock-posh voice.

“Are we really going to get married with you in just your boxers?”

Baekhyun feigned innocence, “Why? Would you rather I take them off?”

The other man went to tap him on the arm in annoyance (Baekhyun had to make everything crude) but missed completely, instead gently clipping his ear.

“Aggression duly noted,” Baekhyun said with a shrug and a smirk.

He took Kyungsoo’s arm again and began chanting something in words Kyungsoo didn’t understand. He was speaking the language of the fairies, one which is only used during ceremonies or in politics since all fairy realms had their own languages.

As he did so, Kyungsoo felt his forearm tingling as warmth travelled through his veins.

Baekhyun had told him before that, when fairies get married, they share a little bit of their magic in order to leave markings on their partners. If fairies married a non-fairy, the veins around their partner’s marking would turn the colour of the fairy’s own. In Baekhyun and Kyungsoo’s case, this turned part of Kyungsoo’s forearm bright blue.

As Baekhyun spoke, Kyungsoo felt him shift slightly, and it seemed that Baekhyun had shifted into his natural form, judging by the fact that the skin against Kyungsoo’s own felt much cooler and rougher.

“I need you to repeat the vows I just said after me,” Baekhyun explained, “the magic inside you now will form the same marking you have on my body.”

So Kyungsoo did just that, relishing in the feeling of the waves of warmth ebbing in and out of the two of them.

Soon enough, they were married.

“Can you tell me what the marking looks like?”

Baekhyun moved the two of them so that Kyungsoo’s back was rested against the headboard with Baekhyun positioned in between his legs. Kyungsoo could feel Baekhyun’s folded wings against his bare skin.

“It’s a bird,” Baekhyun replied, “it’s diving downwards and its body fades out into tiny flowers – bluebells by the looks of it – which reach the fold in your arm. I have the same one”

“Will your marking remain even in your human form?” Kyungsoo hoped that it would.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun grimaced a bit, “so we’re going to look like cringey idiots who got matching couple tattoos!” He whined.

“I think it’s cute,” his husband shrugged.

Baekhyun leaned his head around to kiss his husband, “not as cute as you, Mr Do-Byun.”

“No. We’re not doing that.”

“Oh, bore off!” Baekhyun laughed heartily and went back to kissing Kyungsoo’s wonderfully huge smile.

 

Newly wedded, the pair decided to move back to their Welsh village to build a life for themselves there. It had been over 40 years since they had been exiled and, given that they still maintained the look of two men in their mid-twenties, they doubted very much that anyone would guess they had returned. Kyungsoo had been born there and neither of them had memories of their mothers outside of that village so they felt their decision was the most natural one.

Their old home had been burned to the ground after they had left and was nothing but a pile of rubble on the ground when they returned. Baekhyun hoped and prayed as he sobbed into his husband’s shoulder at the end of the house’s now-beaten driveway that their mothers had been caught up in the blaze. The thought of anyone tampering with their bodies after their death sickened him to his stomach.

The house they bought was a small bungalow only a few miles away from their old home. They wanted to be close to their old home because, in some small way, it felt like they were also closer to their mothers that way. The pile of rubble even had a small amount of magical energy remaining and, once Baekhyun had felt his mother in the air once again, he felt reluctant to move away from the source.

Their home was a pretty and picturesque one with a thatched roof and a small garden scattered with blossom trees, leaving it in a year-round shade. This was perfect for the two men because they never really were fans of the sun. Baekhyun took great pleasure in coating the entire lawn with thousands of flowers until the grass was barely visible and Kyungsoo adored lying in the grass with his husband in his arms, taking in the sweet smells of the flowers, relishing in the feeling of the breeze blowing blossoms around them.

The only thing they felt was missing from their lives was a child.

It was only natural, really; they were completely and irrevocably in love with one another with a beautiful home and a comfortable life.

It was an impossible thing to wish for, however. Without even considering the fact that two men in their situation would unlikely be allowed to adopt a child, even if they had a beautiful home which would provide warmth and comfort, adopting a human child would bring far too much difficulty. The child would no doubt feel isolated from their fathers. Would they even be able to tell a son or daughter about their powers? How would they deal with the pain of watching their own child live, grow old, and die while they aged not a single day?

Baekhyun took this much worse than Kyungsoo. While Kyungsoo had an intense fear attached to raising a child and bringing them into potential danger by providing them with two magically-gifted fathers, Baekhyun had a heart bursting at the seams with a surplus love he was desperate to share.

He would often fall asleep at night in his husband’s arms, sniffling through hot tears, voicing his dreams about having children.

“I’d teach them my mother’s language,” he would say as Kyungsoo’s hands dragged through his hair, “I would tell them all about their grandmothers. I would tell them what beautiful, warm, loving women they were. I would love them. I would love them so much, Soo.”

Hearing his husband’s sobs, knowing he was so devastatingly upset made Kyungsoo’s heart twist and turn in his chest, but he really didn’t think having children would be a good thing for them. Maybe in another lifetime, maybe in the next century, but not then. He reminded Baekhyun of the dangers, he reminded him that their own mothers were only incredibly young when they had their sons, and they were over a century old. Their fathers had been even older.

This made no difference. No matter how hard Kyungsoo tried, he couldn’t convince his husband that, if they just waited, the universe would do them a favour and they would be able to have a child. Waiting tore Baekhyun apart inside and, as they lay together under the moonlight, though physically close, they had never felt further apart from one another.

It was made worse when the young couple who lived in a small cottage opposite their own had their baby daughter.

Baekhyun was absolutely beside himself with affection for the child and, since the young couple like many people in their village, took pity on the young, sad gay man and his blind husband (much to Kyungsoo’s absolute fury), they allowed Baekhyun to spend a great deal of time with the newborn.

“She is called Rhoslyn,” her mother explained as she passed the tiny baby, barely three weeks old, into Baekhyun’s arms.

“She is absolutely beautiful,” he said through tears, laughing them off, as though he was just being overly emotional, but he had never meant anything more in his life.

Kyungsoo didn’t take kindly to this. He knew it was incredibly unhealthy for Baekhyun and he watched as his husband felt nothing but black depression until he had that child in his arms. What if the couple moved away? What if they got sick of taking pity and told Baekhyun to stop coming around? What if Kyungsoo lost Baekhyun altogether?

It didn’t take long for the young soothsayer to find out exactly what that felt like.

There was a knock on the door one night as Kyungsoo and Baekhyun were sleeping. It was a horrifically stormy night and rain crashed against the house fiercely. It was a wonder the aggressive wind didn’t blow the windows through.

Baekhyun woke up first and jumped out of bed to see who needed to see him so desperately.

To say he was shocked to see the young mother standing on his doorstep with a deathly pale Rhoslyn in her arms was an understatement.

The young woman didn’t even give Baekhyun a chance to blink before blurting out, “Is it true?!”

The fairy just blinked at her. He had a lot of secrets and he couldn’t possibly know which one she was referring to.

“Is it true? Are you really a fairy, Baekhyun?” She practically screamed at him, drenched through with rainwater.

“Just…just come in,” he said and moved aside to let her step into the house.

“I heard a story from my husband, Emmet Lee. I don’t know if you know him that well but …she began to explain. She passed a very sick looking baby to Baekhyun before reaching into her sodden jeans to retrieve a piece of paper. As she unfolded it, trying not to tear the areas completely soaked with rainwater, she continued, “he says his father knew you. He says his father always went on and on about this…guy called Baekhyun. Emmet says he always knew his father had been with a man for a few years before his met emmet’s mother and everyone always assumed it was this Baekhyun guy,” ‘this Baekhyun guy’ felt like his world was spinning and had to focus on the baby in his arms intently to stop himself from dropping her, “that was just a fact of Emmet’s life; his father was gay and still in love with another man. Whatever. Shit happens,” Baekhyun had been referred to as much less flattering things than ‘shit’, so he continued to listen, “but when he was dying, he kept going on about how this Baekhyun was a fairy. No one believed him, of course, but he always talked about magic and these beautiful wings and hands that could spurt heat and light and…”

She cut herself off and passed Baekhyun a picture, taking her daughter back in her arms.

Baekhyun looked at the black and white photo. He remembered the exact day it was taken. He was nineteen years of age and completely smitten with a certain Taemin Lee. The two men were laying in a field, surrounded by flowers (grown by Baekhyun). Baekhyun had his head rested on the older man’s chest, his eyes were closed in sweet bliss as one of Taemin’s hands wrapped around his waist, the other reaching in the air, holding a camera only someone of Taemin’s financial standing could have afforded.

“Oh my God,” Baekhyun choked out, bringing his hand against his mouth. He turned the photo over and read the caption on the back: _for my dear Baekhyunnie, may we love each other for an eternity._

“It really _is_ you…”

Baekhyun wiped the tears from his eyes and coughed to compose himself, “yes, it is but I don’t do that stuff anymore. I don’t use my magic. Please, respect mine and my husband’s privacy and leave us alone. We mean no harm.”

“No, no, no, no,” the young woman said frantically, “you don’t understand. I need your help. _Rhoslyn_ needs your help.”

Baekhyun remembered the small baby girl then and noticed fully how unwell she really looked.

“She is _dying_ Baekhyun,” her mother said solemnly and the young fairy felt his world fall to bits in a split second, “the doctors can’t save her. The only hope for her is a miracle.”

Baekhyun began to shake his head and backed away from the young mother. He couldn’t save this child’s life, not alone. He could create life and he could take life but, once someone was dying, they only had one fate. Unless…

“I know you can! I know you can help her! I read about it in a book I found in some weird magic shop in Glastonbury or somewhere. An actual real-life witch, her name is Veronica or something, gave it to me.  She said so herself: witches can attach the souls of humans to buildings for longevity.”

“Not on their own they can’t…”

The woman’s eyes lit up at the young man’s comment, “so it’s true!”

“it isn’t that simple,” he said with pain in his voice, “witches need the blood of a fairy to do so… don't look at me like that, I know I am a fairy but you just don’t _get it_!”

“WHAT DON’T I GET?” She cried out, forcing her daughter into Baekhyun’s arms as her entire body trembled with fear, exhaustion and, thanks to Baekhyun, pure venomous anger, “tell me, Baekhyun, help me to understand because my child is _dying. S_ he is only two months old, but in a few days, she will be _dead_ if you don’t help her.”

Baekhyun sighed as he moved the small child’s hair out of her eyes. He placed his hand over her head and released cold energy from his palms to reduce the fever, not wanting to look into the young mother’s eyes.

“If you let me take her to a witch, if we bind her soul to a building like that book said, she will also be bound to me until the day she dies. She will live to be an old woman but she will have my magic within her. Ask Kyungsoo what that feels like; when I am not around, the warmth my magic provides falls away leaving one feeling cold, empty, dead inside. In other magical creatures, this fades after a few days, but it is a bond far too intense for a human to bear. Fairies are awful, manipulative creatures and a human person being filled with the magic of a fairy is something fairies used to punish humans for their evil ways. It is meant to be unpleasant. The only way this can be resolved is if another human accepts the bond. That isn’t to mention the fact that she would never be able to go outside ever again. She would have a horribly lonely life. She would never know her mother or her father. Is that what you want?”

After talking for so long, the silence in the room made Baekhyun feel on edge. It felt like hours before the young mother replied.

“Yes.” She nodded once before taking her child into her arms for the last time and kissed her on the head, “you will be okay, Rhoslyn. This man is going to save you. You don’t have to remember you mommy, baby, just make sure you live to be an old lady, okay? I expect to see you from heaven with grey hair and wrinkles, you promise me?”

Then she left. It was probably too painful to hang around and there wasn’t much time; soon, Rhoslyn would be dead and her soul wouldn’t be salvageable in this dimension.

So, Baekhyun grabbed his few prized possessions from a box under his and Kyungsoo’s bed, put on his coat and left for Glastonbury in search of a witch, never to return.

 

When Kyungsoo woke the next morning to find his bed cold, he finally allowed his tears to fall. He had known for some time (as he did with everything that happened in this godforsaken life) that Baekhyun would leave with Rhoslyn and he knew all of his efforts to make him stay would be futile, but that didn’t mean that the heat radiating from the last cup of tea Baekhyun would leave him for many years as it sat on his bedside table didn’t make his heart run cold.

 This was only worsened when he felt his lovers magic drain from his body. He knew the marking would remain but the magic coursing through his veins never returned. Just as he had seen in a dream, he had lost the love of his life. He knew he would see him again but their love would never be the same for the rest of eternity.

 


	9. Part Three - Kiss Me

_Kiss me beneath the milky twilight_

 

_Lead me out on the moonlit floor_

 

_Lift your open hand_

 

_Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance_

 

_Silver moon sparkling_

 

 

 

 

_So kiss me_

\- Kiss Me, Six Pence None the Richer 


	10. Part Three - He crushed you. In the best way.

“You can probably fill in the rest of the blanks…” Baekhyun whispered softly, choking on a quiet sob as he did so. A stray tear rolled down his cheek which Chanyeol wiped away with his thumb, a thumb that was freezing cold and trembling.

The window of the room was still open but neither of the men had really noticed much. After the third hour of talking, Baekhyun had pulled the two men over to the bed and both men had climbed under the silken sheets to keep warm. Chanyeol wondered if it was a little too intimate; Baekhyun seemed to be a very clingy person, maybe because he didn’t have very many people left to cling to so he took the opportunity whenever it came. He supposed it didn’t matter too much, after all, Baekhyun had just emptied his entire soul to him, not much else mattered.

The sun was beginning to rise. It was at the stage where the sky is painted with golden orange and red hues, making the room glow a beautiful colour. The warm colours burst through a gap in the net curtains and shone a spotlight across Baekhyun’s face, highlighting the specks of colour in his otherwise jet-black irises. Chanyeol tried to imagine what his real eyes looked like. The thought sent a thrill up his spine. He genuinely couldn’t believe he was in the presence of a fairy.

This was mostly because Baekhyun seemed so…normal. Sure, he was incredibly quirky and had serious mood swings, and was even extremely touchy-feely which Chanyeol honestly wondered if it was part of English culture, or something. As the other man told his story with such raw emotion, Chanyeol’s heart swelled in his chest with admiration and affection. All he wanted to do was take Baekhyun in his arms and tell him that he was a great man, that he was sorry he had lead such a gruelling life, that he was the most selfless man on earth. He wanted to tell him all of these things because he knew they were true but, instead, he just sat and listened in complete silence. Stunned.

Chanyeol shifted for the first time since he had sat in the bed, moving to lay his pillow flat on the bed. He looked into Baekhyun’s eyes to wordlessly ask for his permission to do the same to his pillow before fidgeting around to allow them both to lie down. They turned to face each other and relished in the silence for a while. Baekhyun was sick of talking and was nervously waiting for Chanyeol to say something.

“That story is pretty wild, Baekhyun,” was all Chanyeol said, mentally kicking himself for saying something so underwhelming yet so dumb.

Baekhyun smiled softly, letting out a breathy laugh. As his lips curled up, the bags under his eyes became more prominent. “Don’t tell me that’s all you have to say.”

“No, no,” Chanyeol stuttered, “it’s just…a lot. A hell of a lot. You’re a bit of an enigma, Baek. There’s no textbook way of dealing with a situation like this. No ‘my deepest condolences’ or ‘kind regards’, you know?”

Baekhyun seemed to ignore everything Chanyeol had said because he just smirked his cheeky smirk and squeezed in closer to Chanyeol, resting his head on his chest.

“What?”

“You just called me Baek,” he said scrunching his face up in a teasing manner. Chanyeol went red as a tomato; he hadn’t even realised he had done it. Baekhyun squeezed his cheek like he was a small baby and cooed, “aw, Chanyeol, don’t be embarrassed! I think it is cute. Since you’ve given me a cute nickname, I’m going to give you one.”

He propped himself up with his arms either side of Chanyeol’s head, studying him closely, pouting his lips in deep thought. He prodded at his cheeks, tugged on his ears, and ruffled his hair before bobbing his tongue out and flopping back down onto Chanyeol’s chest.

“I am going to call you ‘Yeol’,” he said with finality, as though his inspection had made that name the most obvious choice, “is that okay?”

Chanyeol nodded in dazed confusion (he had no idea what the other man was talking about and he honestly felt like his head was filled with cotton wool by this point) until he realised Baekhyun wasn’t looking at him.

“Y-yeah, sure. That’s…nice.”

“Cool.” Baekhyun raised his right hand up in the air and waved it around slightly until the stars painted on the ceiling began to move around. They dashed from corner to corner in clumps, almost like a swarm of birds until he flung them to hover above Chanyeol’s face. He craned his neck to inspect the other man’s face before flicking the golden spots, now suspended freely in the air, so that they dotted across Chanyeol’s cheeks like freckles.

“Cute.”

As quickly as he put them there, he got rid of them, obviously dissatisfied with his attempts to entertain himself. He was probably just as dazed as Chanyeol was given the lack of sleep.

“So…” Baekhyun began.

“So?”

“So, do you have any questions?”

Chanyeol pondered for a little while but not for nearly long enough as the first thing that popped out of his mouth was, “were you _seriously_ married to Kyungsoo!?” He grimaced slightly, firstly because the thought was quite upsetting. In other words, it made him feel an unwarranted amount of jealousy. Not to mention the fact that he cringed at his forwardness.

Luckily for him, Baekhyun just laughed. A proper belly laugh, too which burst out of him and bubbled in Chanyeol’s chest. He slapped his hands against his face and groaned.

“Fucking hell, Yeol,” he sputtered, “I tell you I am a real-life fucking _mythical creature_ with wings and freaky eyes and you ask me that! I’ve been alive for 70 years and look 25 years of age, and you ask me about my shitstorm of a marriage?”

“Erm…” Chanyeol blinked, “Yes?”

Baekhyun pulled the sleeve of his tatty shirt up towards his elbow and shoved his arm ungracefully into Chanyeol’s face. Clear as day, there was an imprint of a bird appearing to soar across his forearm, fading into a flurry of flowers at its tail end. Chanyeol ran his fingers across it gently, surprised to find that it wasn’t raised above his skin like a normal tattoo would be but, instead, felt like it had just appeared there as easily as the pigment of his arm itself. As though it were just another freckle or a beauty spot acquired at birth.

“See. I didn’t lie. I really was Baekhyun Do for exactly twenty years. Changing my name back to Byun without any divorce papers was a pain in the arse, that’s for sure. I could have pummelled the poor woman at the building society trying to change the shop’s account name…”

He was just waffling, that much was obvious, but Chanyeol gathered by the trembling of his hands as his tore at his overhanging fingernails (he was clearly a nail-biter) that he was uncomfortable with the subject.

“I did love him, Yeol. I’ve never felt guiltier than I did the first night I got here. I’d completely forgotten about him. The second that child was in my arms, the second I had someone else to occupy my mind, I completely forgot about him.”

He started to cry as he dredged up the feelings and heartbreak he had felt at the time, feelings he had neglected to mention in his telling of his life story. Feelings that someone like Chanyeol with his limited life experience could never understand and could only attempt to lessen, which he did by gently stroking his hand through Baekhyun’s hair. To ground him if nothing else.

“He is a grown man – fuck, he is an _old man_ by your standards – he has had a whole lifetime to come to terms with everything and he was able to fend for himself but that doesn’t mean he didn’t _need_ me. We went everywhere together. Hell, he couldn’t just go about his life on his own like I could. He’d never had to find a way of coping on his own before. He had never learned to cook. He couldn’t just go into town to buy a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread because he always did that with _me._ So what if his powers reduced the impact of his disability on his life? So what if he knew the streets of the village like the back of his hand because of his visions? Does that mean he could see a car bombing down the street or a pedestrian in his path? Does that make it better?”

Chanyeol felt as though it was a completely rhetorical question because he knew Baekhyun already knew the answer. Of course it didn’t make it better. Baekhyun had done something pretty terrible actually. Granted, he was in an impossible situation; he had a dying child in his arms and he knew he was the only person capable of saving her life but to not take care of his own husband at the same time, well, some may say that was unforgivable. Chanyeol didn’t believe that and one could presume that Kyungsoo didn’t either. That didn’t quash Baekhyun’s guilt, though.

“Thank Orion for Emmet and Janie Lee, that’s all I can say. They remembered Kyungsoo. His own fucking husband forgot him but they knew he was there. They knew he needed someone with him. You know, they took the time to take his for assessments at the eye clinic and helped him to arrange meetings with the trainers of a guide dog? They did all that for him. He says it’s only because I had saved the life of their child but I don’t think that matters…”

Chanyeol wasn’t really sure what to say but he could tell Baekhyun’s mind was spiralling and he wasn’t sure how to deal with a fatigue-induced meltdown; _do fairies have more intense meltdowns than humans?_ He pondered with panic _What if he burst into flames like fairies in fairy tales or turned cannibalistic or something equally as horrifying?!_ He knew he was being completely ridiculous, and he doubted Baekhyun would appreciate what he was thinking, so he shook the thoughts away. Instead, he tried to bring Baekhyun’s focus back into the present.

“Does he still have it?”

“Have what?” Baekhyun turned his head to reveal puffy red eyes and unnaturally slimy tear tracks, thick like snail slime. Yet another reminder that the man Chanyeol held in his arms wasn’t a human being.

“The dog. Does Kyungsoo still have the dog?”

Baekhyun scrunched his face up in confusion. “Who, Daisy? Yeah…she is probably sleeping opposite Kyungsoo and Rhoslyn’s rooms. She normally does. Why?”

Chanyeol just shrugged.

“Kyungsoo brought her here with him when he moved in about five years ago. I lived with Rhoslyn on my own, and with Veronica when she bothered to show her face, for two years.”

“Why did Kyungsoo decide to move in?” Chanyeol was pretty certain he already knew why.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were so much more than husbands. They had been each other’s pillars for their entire lives, and a structure can’t remain standing for long without its pillars. Not to mention the love that they so obviously had for each other. They were solid proof that love has no bounds and, when you commit to loving someone for life, you truly do. Their romance had been and gone but they couldn’t simply abandon each other.

“I ask myself that question every day,” maybe Baekhyun couldn’t see what Chanyeol could see, “don’t get me wrong. He was pissed off with me. So, so fucking angry.”

Chanyeol could believe it. Kyungsoo had nearly bitten his head off during their first meeting and anyone who didn’t know any better would think he was a bitter young man with a cold, dead heart. That was all a façade though. Beneath the tough exterior was a big softie.

“I started to believe I would never see him again. I tried to get into contact with him but he had disconnected the home landline. I guessed he wasn’t interested. He never wanted a child, really, and I was selfish. I gathered he was glad to be shot of me. So, I raised Rhoslyn on my own. I changed her dirty nappies, I sang her to sleep, I told her stories about my mother, like I always said I would. I never mentioned Kyungsoo.”

He shifted again, moving to lay beside Chanyeol, looking in his eyes as he spoke.

“I couldn’t say his name, Yeol. I felt sick with shame when I so much as thought of him. It wasn’t like I could look for him, either. Rhoslyn is bound to the house – you probably gathered that much. The house is the only thing keeping her alive. Even now. She can’t leave. Well, she can leave if a piece of the house is taken with her but not for long,” he stopped talking and laughed, shaking his head, “sorry, I’m still going on…”

“No, no, no,” Chanyeol insisted, “carry on, please. Besides, you’ve still missed out some very key information, like, why in hell I am even here in the first place.”

“Ah,” Baekhyun avoided Chanyeol’s gaze, “sorry. I’m getting there. Anyway…she is also bound to me, which means I can’t be away from her for too long without her getting sick. Very sick. Deathly sick.”

“Even if she is in the house?” Chanyeol tried to make sense of this new concept.

Baekhyun nodded, “so I just had to wait. I waited for two years. Until, one day, he appeared on my doorstep with a dog and a suitcase. He stayed with me ever since.”

That day had been one of the most significant days of Baekhyun’s life. When the knock came on the shop door while he and Rhoslyn were eating breakfast one autumn morning, Kyungsoo was the last person he expected to find on the other side. When he saw the other man, looking healthier than when Baekhyun had left him, with more of a spark in his smile, all the young fairy could do was sob in his arms in pure joy. It felt like he had shed the weight of the world from his shoulders in that second.

“He had known where I was the whole time. Of course he had! He knew I was going to leave. Of course he did! He also knew he needed to stay away. He knew our romance had run its course and that we both needed to learn to be our own person. That’s why he let me manage on my own. When he saw I was coping, he got in the first taxi that would drive him hundreds of miles and the rest is history.”

Chanyeol thought it was amazing, honestly, that they had managed to make it work in the end. Though, it wasn’t as though they had much choice. It isn’t though there are ample immortal beings about so, if they only had each other to spend the rest of their lives with while everyone else inevitably ceased to exist, they had to learn to live through even the hardest of times.

Now, Chanyeol decided, it was time for him to be a little selfish and ask the question that had been pressing on his mind for the last 24 hours.

“Forgive me, Baek, but what does this have to do with me?”

Silence was the unnerving reply. Baekhyun looked incredibly solemn, as though he had just had to give someone a death sentence.  He sighed and ran his hand gently across Chanyeol’s face.

“You’re a good guy, Chanyeol. That’s the problem.”

Again with the cryptic words. If Chanyeol wasn’t so whipped by this guy already, he may have actually been irritated. Yet, he remained patient and let Baekhyun speak in his own time.

“Do you remember what I said about transferring the bond to someone else being the only way to get rid of it?”

Chanyeol nodded.

“Well, Veronica wants to transfer Rhoslyn’s bond to someone else.”

Chanyeol thought that made sense. She had also saved Rhoslyn’s life, after all. He expressed this with a shrug and an understanding nod.

“God, not you as well,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “she is a complete and utter _bitch,_ Chanyeol. She only did what I asked her in the first place so she could abandon her shop and leave it in the arms of some poor sod, the one you are looking at right now, while she goes off galivanting, prancing off to Wiccan retreats and being a freelance, international witch-bitch-freak-show.”

Chanyeol winced at his anger.

“She wants Rhoslyn gone but doesn’t want blood on her hands. She wants me gone so she can sell the shop but doesn’t want blood on her hands. She resents the poor child and resents me for sticking by her side for so long. She is desperate to transfer the bond to some other poor sod so she can put some anti-fairy wards on the shop and boot me out.”

“I am guessing that sod is me then?”

Chanyeol supposed that made sense. That explained the sickness when he was away from the shop, or more specifically, away from Baekhyun. That explained his feelings for the man which was a relief at least. He hadn’t fallen head over heels, which would be stupid, entirely of his own volition.

“Don’t panic, though,” Baekhyun insisted, sitting up and gesticulating wildly, “she hasn’t done it yet. She’s probably just experimenting with you, like, seeing if she can do it without physically injecting you with my blood like she did with Rhoslyn. I’m guessing she only laced your tea and, with the tablets Yixing gave you, it should wear off soon. I just need you to stay here a few days to be sure.”

Chanyeol let out a massive breath of air he didn’t even know he had been holding. He felt sick with worry and his unsteady breathing had been making his head throb since he asked the dreaded question but he could have cried at that moment. He was going to be okay.

“You know, for a second I was seriously shitting myself,” he laughed as he dragged a trembling hand through his hair, adrenaline coursing through his veins, “I suppose anyone would find that not having a terminal illness or whatever quite a relief.”

“You’re right about that, Yeol,” Baekhyun flopped back on Chanyeol’s chest again.

“Not to mention the crush I was starting to think I had on you…”

Baekhyun went stiff as a board, “w-wait, what?”

“Yeah, I know. Stupid, really. I keep getting these butterflies in my stomach like I am a teenager who has just discovered what a crush is. Then when you touch me my heart just goes insane. Even now, I think it might burst out of my chest cavity!”

Baekhyun didn’t seem to find this quite as funny and didn’t say a single word. He lifted his head and looked at Chanyeol with a forced smile. He lifted his hand to lay on Chanyeol’s chest, eyes widening when he felt a pulse that was, in fact, so high it may be a clinical matter.

“Crazy, right?” Chanyeol asked, none the wiser as to the other man’s inner turmoil.

“Insane.”

Baekhyun looked like he was about to say something, then he looked so conflicted and terrified that Chanyeol thought he might bolt. Then, with sudden conviction, he lifted his entire body until he was directly above Chanyeol, onepalm on his chest, one on his face.

“What are you…”

Chanyeol’s question was cut off by a quick peck on the lips. So fleeting, so brief he thought he may have imagined it.

Baekhyun felt his pulse as it raced like a butterfly trapped under a glass, pounding against his ribcage like a drum.

Before he could process what had happened, Baekhyun went in again. He kissed Chanyeol much more slowly, and much more deeply this time. Chanyeol took the opportunity to kiss him back.

He had kissed other people before but it had never felt like this. It felt like all the springs in history were happening at once right there in that room. As Baekhyun’s hands both moved to hold his own, he felt like he was floating in mid-air as a hot breeze forced itself past him. He felt the butterflies in his stomach turn into a swarm of birds.

They both pulled away at the same time and Baekhyun felt Chanyeol’s pulse once again.

“Wow,” was all he could say.

“I know,” was the reply that came.

Baekhyun looked into Chanyeol, his rosy cheeks and hazy eyes on full display and smirked. Again.

“You know, Yeol. Fairy bonds can’t cause crushes.”

Without waiting for a reply, he placed on more kiss on Chanyeol’s temple, laughing as the human’s eyebrows shot into his head in shock, before flitting out of the room completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm done for the day lol
> 
> there is more...plenty ;)


	11. Part Three - Found Family

Chanyeol slept for the rest of the day. The conversation, along with other things, had physically and mentally drained him, almost to the point where he wondered if he would get his mind to slow down at all. After what felt like days of tossing and turning, willing his mind to just slow down and bring sleep, he drifted off.

His dreams were filled with flashing, stationary images of Baekhyun. Dream Chanyeol repeatedly appeared in an array of settings including his mother’s home, the beaten track that led him between rapeseed fields which paved the way to his late grandmother’s home, even the tiny café he and his friends used to frequent when they were still in high school. Except, the difference was, in amongst the crowds of people or alongside the old woman he passed in the street was Baekhyun. He was neither boastful nor blatant, but he was always there. Just a passing constant in the undercurrent of his mind.

 _Shit,_ he thought as sleep began to fall away, _I am in way too deep with this one._

He finally came to full consciousness when the smell of food wafted across his nose. He hadn’t realised until he felt a loud rumbling through his entire abdomen that he was completely starving. His hosts had neglected to feed him yesterday (he could only assume that the business they had going on here wasn’t a B&B) but he was acutely aware of his plummeting blood sugar as he attempted to stand up and almost ended up back on his arse.

When he eventually caught his balance, he made his way out of the room and attempted to retrace the steps he took almost 24 hours before, barely recognising the corridor he walked down in the dark last time.

The corridor was so long he wondered if it had been cursed. His mind began to race as his pace quickened, becoming more convinced that he was living in some kind of real-life, knock off, low budget version of the Labyrinth. In his rapidly unfolding mental scenario, he was the baby, there without a care in the world, pleased as punch, unaware of the immense danger he was in. The David Bowie of this scenario was most definitely Baekhyun.

Before he got too carried away in his imagination, the never-ending row of plain wooden doors came to an end, leaving way for three more decorated doors and a stairway down to the shop. One door had bells and ribbons tied around the handle and was propped slightly ajar with a bean-stuffed, owl-shaped doorstop. This was presumably Kyungsoo’s room. The door opposite was blatantly Rhoslyn’s room; the name plaque on the door was a minor giveaway but Chanyeol also highly doubted that the dozens of posters of girl bands and Pokémon were Baekhyun’s. The third and final door was painted with flowers which screamed Baekhyun all over. Chanyeol smiled at the thought of Baekhyun painstakingly painting each one. Although, he could have just magicked them out of thin air.

It took him a bit longer to find any sign of life in the back rooms of the shop and he started to wonder if he had been left alone until he heard voices coming from the kitchen. Gently, he opened the door and peered in, preparing himself to dash off if he felt he wasn’t welcome. Before he even had the chance to breathe, the door was flung open to reveal Luna, looking even more elegant that she had the day before. Amber sure was a lucky woman.

“Chanyeol!” She cried out with glee and dragged him into the room by his wrist, “you’re awake! Just in time for dinner,” she practically sang.

Rhoslyn was also in the room, dressed up as Batman for no reason in particular, concentrating really hard on writing something, in neon green glitter pen, on a scrap of pink paper in the shape of a unicorn. Chanyeol wondered how kids dealt with such sensory overloads; they seem to thrive when they are subjected to every single colour all at once.

“I was starting to think I’d missed out again,” he chuckled as he sat next to the young girl.

Luna was flitting about the kitchen throwing every spice in the rack in a bubbling crock pot filled to the brim with a delicious-smelling stew. The smell made Chanyeol’s mouth water.

Luna was barefoot but the anklets around her feet tinkled with her every graceful step and her flowing skirt floating around her with gentle grace. She still had flowers woven through her hair but this time, she had gone all out and had a delicate, pure gold flower crown on as well.

“Panic not! Rhoslyn here ate six doughnuts at lunchtime – taking advantage of the absence of a certain helicopter father, me thinks – so we had to postpone tea-time.”

The small girl looked up from her writing for the first time since Chanyeol had walked in to bob her tongue out at the young woman, who just laughed and reciprocated by blowing raspberries at her.

“Where is Baekhyun, anyway?” Chanyeol was trying to sound casual but even he noticed the wobble in his voice.

“Still asleep. He popped down this morning looking very pleased with himself, grabbed Kyungsoo’s tea, then went back to bed. I was very surprised, honestly, because he was being a right bitch yesterday.”

A loud gasp came from the young girl beside Chanyeol, “OOMN! Auntie Luna! You really can’t say that word! Daddy says if you say bad words, pixies come and steal your tongue!”

“Sorry, baby,” Luna plopped down in the seat opposite her, beginning to slice and butter a loaf of fresh bread, “what I meant to say was, daddy was a bit grouchy and he was driving Auntie Luna bonkers.”

“Why? What was he doing?” Chanyeol knew he was prying but he couldn’t help himself. He was becoming borderline obsessed with the other man after the previous night’s events.

“Ah the usual,” she said as if that helped at all, “whenever he is even the slightest bit tired, he goes into drama queen mode. ‘This house is an absolute tip!’ ‘No one around this place helps me with a damn thing it’s all take, take, take with you lot!’ It’s like living with my mother again. You’re lucky you went to bed before he blew his top.”

That Chanyeol was certain of, considering he reckoned he was one of the reasons behind Baekhyun’s tension at that particular moment in time.

“He seemed alright when he came into my room, though. Pretty chill, almost.”

Luna just rolled her eyes, “can’t imagine why that would be.”

“What do you mean?” Chanyeol furrowed his brows in confusion.

Luna threw him a very smug glance before shrugging, “forget I even said anything, my lovely.”

Still far too groggy from sleep to ask any further questions, Chanyeol just shrugged her comments off.

 

Dinner itself was a lively affair. Given that the kitchen dining table was only intended to accommodate four people at the most, the addition of Chanyeol, Luna, and Amber made for a very cramped kitchen so they migrated to a picnic bench in the courtyard. Apparently, the pub opposite the house was only open a few select days each week and, on the other days, it was free for their use. Chanyeol was secretly grateful to get outside since the shop had begun to feel a little claustrophobic. As lovely as Luna was, she knew how to talk a person’s ear off.

When the food was as good as finished, Chanyeol was shooed out of the kitchen so that Luna could do whatever she needed to do in an incredibly extravagant fashion, no doubt. He wasn’t let off without chores, however, and it was his responsibility to lay the table. Luna piled his arms high with plates, cutlery and a baby blue tablecloth and then escorted him out.

He was a little trepidatious when stepping out of the shop, worried that his body would respond in the same extreme way it had the last time he had emerged across the threshold. This was all until he remembered that it was Baekhyun who he couldn’t be away from, not the house, and the fairy was no doubt somewhere nearby. He also shook his fears away upon remembering the tablets that Yixing had given him; even if he was still bonded to Baekhyun in some way, he wouldn’t be for much longer, a thought which was far more disappointing than it should have been.

The sun was beginning to fall behind the clouds and had given way to a light breeze by the time he had battled with the tablecloth, which he only managed to hold down with some pebbles he had dug out of a plant pot. He decided to just stay outside and wait for the others – he wasn’t certain who given that he had no idea who else was even in the shop – and took his seat at the table.

The wind as it whistled around him was much appreciated, providing a freshness that he hadn’t had while cooped up in the shop, not to mention the fact that the heat in the kitchen had been quite overwhelming. After spending the previous few weeks constantly moving, only staying in one place for twelve hours at the very most, staying in Glastonbury alone for more than a few hours was itself a bizarre concept to him, let alone being around the same shop for three days.

Although, he supposed his friends would have been rather pleased that he wasn’t dragging them around on another whistle-stop tour. That is presuming they even stayed in Glastonbury in the first place; they had to return to Korea in the next couple of days and they weren’t even in the vicinity of the airport they needed. Chanyeol had already come to terms with the fact that he was staying put for the foreseeable future, at least.

It was surprising that his friends hadn’t been knocking the doors of the shop down in an attempt to rescue him, he pondered as he leaned his head up to look at the clouds floating through the pale blue sky. Goodness only knows what he had said to them to convince them to stay away. Jongdae particularly didn’t take kindly to being bossed around but even he hadn’t shown his face at the shop.

Chanyeol considered texting them, feeling borderline offended that his friends hadn’t even bothered to _phone_ him when he remembered that he had switched his phone off the night before to save power and, in amongst all of the drama, had forgotten to turn it back on.

He dug around in his too-big, fleeced hoodie for his mobile phone and powered up. When his home screen lit up, he couldn’t help but feel a nostalgic sadness manifest itself in his stomach upon seeing a photograph he had taken with his friends a few days before.

They were all stood outside the national art gallery in London. It had been absolutely pissing it down that day and no one other than Chanyeol wanted to even go outside let alone traipse around the capital city, taking in the sites but, not unlike every other day on the trip, the group collectively reminded themselves that this trip was for Chanyeol, it was his last opportunity to be with his friends altogether at once before they abandoned him. Letting him drag them around was the least they could do.

Even though the knowledge that most of what his friends had put up with was done so out of pity, as well as the notion that his final days with his friends were cut short in the most absurd of circumstances, made him shed a stray tear, he couldn’t help but smile at the image.

A smiley Chanyeol stood in the centre of the group, which made the most sense considering he was the tallest, with Jongin and Sehun flanking his either side. Sehun looked like he was being disturbed by some kind of bad smell judging by how his face was twisted up into a grimace. Chanyeol thought it was all just to piss off Jongdae who was being all mushy and kissing Minseok’s shit-eating grin; Sehun probably didn’t want anyone to know how undisputedly happy he was for his best friends (it would ruin his cool and stoic image).  

As for Jongin, he just looked like…Jongin. He was a quiet guy, never opting to say very much but he was always there when you needed him. He was the rock of the friendship group. The rock that never really had an active role in life himself. Even though he was a modest soul, Chanyeol knew the group of friends would suffer his loss the most.

The mobile phone finally booted up and started buzzing like a bee on heat. There were about fifty missed calls from his mother for a start, followed by three messages from her explaining that Minseok had called and told her Chanyeol was staying with a ‘friend’ and had his phone turned off.

 _“Make sure you eat well,”_ the third text said, _“if you come home skinny, mamma will put you on house arrest. Use protection ;-) xx”_

Chanyeol went purple with shame. He hadn’t been up to anything like that…much, and that certainly hadn’t been his intention but telling her that would just dig a deeper hole so he sent her some heart emojis and a simple, “ _love you too, mamma :-P Xxx”_ instead.

Another buzz and a message from Jongin flashed on the screen.

“ _Hey Chanyeol (: heard you have to stay put for a while. Hope you’re doing good over there. The guys are heading home. Sorry you couldn’t say bye. Imma hang around for a while if u need anything. Jongin x”_

Lord only knows why Jongin signed text messages with his name when caller ID was rather fool proof but that was just one of the many things that made Jongin unlike anyone else. It made him…him. It was hard to place exactly what ‘him’ meant but the mystery to the guy made him a good person to be around for all of those years. Chanyeol was perplexed by the last part of the message. He couldn’t understand why Jongin didn’t leave with the others; he came from a poor family and couldn’t just afford to buy plane tickets willy-nilly.

His mother was chronically unwell and had been for the whole time Chanyeol had known Jongin and, like Chanyeol, Jongin’s father was nowhere to be found, so the young man had been the head of his household, as well as a father-figure for his younger siblings. The mere thought of Jongin staying behind for Chanyeol’s benefit made the latter’s stomach churn.

Before he had the chance to respond to Jongin and demand that he went home, Amber stepped out onto the courtyard with a plate of bread in one hand and a glass of water in the other.

“Hey, worrywart, how you doing?” She said in a slightly patronising tone, stomping over to the table in huge black boots. Chanyeol had to admit, she was pretty terrifying.

“Worrywart?” He questioned, not sure whether he should be offended.

“Yeah,” Amber shrugged, “last time I saw you, you had just woken up after having a bit of a freak out so I have you pinned down as a bit of a worrier. Problem?”

“N-no, not at all.” Okay. Chanyeol was definitely terrified of Amber.

She just laughed at him as though he were babbling idiot and she was observing him for her own amusement.

“You’re alright now though aren’t you Chanyeol?” She raised her eyebrow at him.

He was lost once again.

“Aw someone is in denial. No point lying to _me,_ Chanyeol. We all know “pretty boy” spent the night in your bed. Was it fun? Was he as good as everyone says? Was it really like kissing a girl because you know,” she waved her hands in front of her face, “the face. His makeup is just too much. It makes me uncomfortable actually because I sometimes convince myself I fancy him and, you must have gathered, he is not my type but still, he…”

Chanyeol tuned her out but didn’t manage to stop himself from sputtering like an idiot, attempting in a great panic to explain himself. He didn’t _sleep_ with Baekhyun. He didn’t even _sleep_ , sleep with him because the fairy (it was still so strange saying that) ran off before they could even talk about the incident, let alone nod off into dream world together. Let alone the fact that she was referring to “everyone. Who was “everyone”? Did Baekhyun often coax men into bed with him under the ruse that he was doing them a favour then abandon them in the dust. This felt like the most pressing thing to question Amber about.

“God, Chanyeol,” she groaned, “I am taking the piss. Your little lover boy is a complete and utter prude. He hasn’t kissed a boy in seven years. Well, I guess that’s changed now…”

“How did you…”

“AH! Nothing escapes anyone in this place, dear,” she cut him off completely and moved to ruffle his hair, “but don’t worry. We know you talked for most of the night. I’m guessing he told you everything?”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

“Good!” Amber explained as she shuffled onto the bench to sit diagonally across from Chanyeol, lighting a cigarette before carrying on, “I guess I can tell you that I am a druid then.”  


Chanyeol would be lying if he said he was shocked to be in the presence of yet another mythical creature but he was certainly not any closer to getting used to the idea. He just dismissed any thoughts of denial and nodded his head.

“Baekhyun called me over to check the wards on the shop were still up. Or the plumbing, did i say? Ha!”

“The what now?”

“ _Wards._ God, you humans really know nothing. They are like magical…shields, I guess. They hide things or cover up things. These particular wards cloak the magical energy from the shop so that no one can track it down, specifically humans who take a liking to executing mythical creatures. They also protect the physical structure of the house which, as you probably already know, is really important considering Rhoslyn’s…condition.”

Chanyeol was very familiar with Rhoslyn’s condition but he hadn’t really let the reality of it sink in just yet. Intellectually, he understood the basic concept surrounding her ailment: she was dying, as long as she didn’t leave the house and Baekhyun’s side, she would live. Simple. Except Chanyeol couldn’t shake the sudden fleeting thought that the poor child wasn’t really _living_ at all. Did she have any friends? Had she ever seen her own hometown, even? Small children of her age have little idea about the world around them but at the very least, they have been out in it. It was an awful bloody shame.

He shook these unhelpful thoughts away as quickly as they entered his mind. He wasn’t able to shake the sharp pangs of sadness as they coursed through his heart, however. All he could do was distract himself.

“So…” he began, almost afraid to ask Amber another question in case she just took it as bait to mock the stupid human who was cluttering up the place, “are the…wards…okay?” He mentally slapped himself at how stupid his voice sounded in his ears. She probably thought Chanyeol was a complete idiot but it wasn’t as though he was well-versed in this kind of thing.

“Yeah, they’re still up and running,” she puffed out a massive cloud of cigarette smoke and Chanyeol held his breath to stop it getting into his lungs but started to feel dizzy so ended up breathing it all in anyway, “me and Luna are just hanging around here for a couple of days until someone else needs my services or until she decides she needs to frolic in a forest or something,” the young woman rolled her eyes but the soft smile that crept through her tough face gave her affection away, “Luna is a nymph so she doesn’t like being indoors much…”

“So, you don’t live here?” Chanyeol honestly hadn’t been sure who lived in the shop and who didn’t.

“Nah we don’t. We don’t really live anywhere. We are always on the move but it is nice to stop by the shop whenever we can, check everything is all good here, you know?”

Chanyeol nodded. It was nice to see the tight-knit group of friends they all had here. At first, he had been worried that Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Rhoslyn weren’t safe here and, after getting know the situation better, he realised their situation was even worse than he thought, but at least there were people like Luna and Amber who cared about them.

“You know,” Chanyeol was attempting to make conversation with the young woman, desperate for someone to come out of the shop and save him from his own awkwardness, “I’ve never met a real-life lesbian before.”

Amber started choking on her own cigarette smoke and Chanyeol thought she was dying or something until he realised she was actually _laughing a_ t him.

“GOD!” Cough. “You do realise I am a fucking druid as well, don’t you?!” Cackle. “Humans are so fucking WEIRD!”

“What!?” Chanyeol was getting all defensive. What had he said that was so completely hilarious?

“YOU! “ooo I’ve never met a real-life lesbian before even though I am also in the presence of an ancient druid!” Fucking fascinating, Chanyeol.” She was still laughing at him and Chanyeol was going purple.

“I-I was just saying. I-I don’t really know many gay people, other than my friends obviously, and I just wanted to say I…I don’t…I just…GOD! I don’t know just please stop laughing at me!”

Amber turned to face him then, tears of laughter in her eyes still, but she wasn’t laughing at him anymore. Well, she had calmed down a bit at least. She even smiled at him. A proper, kind eye smile. Scary.

“Sorry for laughing at you,” she sounded like she meant it, “you just don’t seem phased by all this magic stuff at all, that is all. I just find it funny. Although, I suppose you know as well as the rest of us what it is like to be judged because of something you can’t change. Why would you judge us?”

Chanyeol didn’t say anything. He just sifted his fingers through the pile of ashes Amber had been flicking on the table. This was slightly uncharted territory for him, the whole “gay, straight, bi” thing. He never really talked about it but something about Amber just made him spurt it out. Maybe it was being in a new country away from his small town and worried mother, now staying in amongst the most flamboyant, self-assured group of people he had ever met. Maybe it was hearing Baekhyun’s story; the story of a very openly gay man (maybe the first he had ever met, now that he thought about it) who had literally lived through the horrific past of gay people in Britain for decades. Maybe he was just too tired and stressed out to stop himself. Whatever it was, he wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

“Ah.” Amber said bluntly, “do we have a closet case on our hands?”

Silence.

“You know, Chanyeol? What I find more outrageous than the fact you ‘like boys’?”

Silence. Chanyeol was smudging the ash around his fingers now.

“The fact that you very blatantly iron your jeans.”

He stopped fiddling with the ash in his hands and looked up at the woman opposite him with confused eyes.

“What?” He said barely above a whisper.                

“Yeah,” she replied with a shrug, “I think it is outrageous, actually. Who the fuck has time to iron their jeans? It is completely unnecessary. Even Baekhyun, self-proclaimed domestic God of the 21st century, does not iron his jeans. You are despicable.”

Chanyeol was worried she was being serious. He had known people get offended about far stranger things than that. That was until she bobbed her tongue out at him and offered him a cigarette, which he politely declined.

“I’m kidding. Seriously though, no one else can make you feel okay about this, Chanyeol. You can come out to a hundred people, go out with a hundred men, fuck a hundred people, but until you come out to yourself? It means nothing. It will get you nowhere.” She lit another cigarette and Chanyeol almost felt tempted to take her up on her offer for one. He felt like his insides had been put on display.

“I am out.”

Amber shot him a sympathetic, understanding glance, “your friends don’t count, Chanyeol. Sure, telling them would have been hard but you put up a front with literally everyone else. There isn’t a gay person on earth who doesn’t know what hiding part of yourself from half the world feels like, myself – hell, even Baekhyun! - included. Each one of them will tell you that when you finally accept yourself, what the rest of the world thinks of you matters so much less. I don’t know if you have ever had anyone tell you this, Chanyeol but you deserve to live as your true self. You deserve to love yourself.”

She was right. No one had ever said that to him. He supposed he had never really allowed himself to feel that way.

He finally decided to fully plunge himself into this conversation while he was able to have it with someone, biting the bullet for once, “I know you are right but I don’t know what else to do. It isn’t like I don’t go on dates with men or have sex with them,” he cringed as soon as he had said that part, it felt way too personal but he carried on, “I have fallen in love with men, too. It’s just that it has never worked out that well…”

“Why do you think that is?”

He thought about it for a second. He always thought there was something wrong with him, honestly. He had convinced himself he just wasn’t boyfriend material, he supposed. Or maybe he was too overbearing. He was the romantic type; he wanted to find someone and fall in love but, since all the gay men he had ever met just wanted to get deathly drunk and have sex with him, he just forced himself to want the same. The notion that Baekhyun and Kyungsoo (even if Kyungsoo wasn’t technically gay, just as Chanyeol wasn’t) had moved way beyond that and got married just felt so unattainable to him.

That is what he told Amber.

She pondered this for a moment before simply shaking her head.

“I think you are wrong, Chanyeol. You know yourself that falling in love with someone is one of the best feelings in the world. I know that falling in love with Luna was one of the best things I have done in my life. Scary? Sure. Easy? No way. But wonderful all the same. It isn’t loving other men that these men can’t do, don’t want to do. It is allowing someone else to fall in love with them that they don’t want. They don’t love themselves so don’t think anyone else should waste their time. They don’t love the fact that they are gay so they don’t want a man to love them. Then they push everyone away, be it subconsciously or not.”

She took a long pause, dragging on her cigarette, watching the orange glow travel up the butt, allowing the ashes to drop through the cracks on the picnic table.

“You don’t love yourself, Chanyeol. That is the problem.”

That was the problem. Chanyeol was the nicest person anyone could ever meet. He was so selfless and so kind. Even over the last few days, he had been told so multiple times. Baekhyun said it with such sweet sorrow that he almost started to believe it was a bad thing. He started to realise in that moment that Baekhyun wasn’t telling him that to make him feel bad but because the fairy knew that it was Chanyeol’s biggest weakness. It could even be the reason he was here in the first place; maybe Veronica thought he would gladly accept the bond without a fight because he had so little self-worth he would always believe he deserved it more than anyone else. He thought everyone deserved love apart from himself. That was the problem.

The sudden realisation of all of these things was a massive shock to his system. It was as though a plug in his mind had been released and all of the sewage water he was trying to trap below the surface started to bubble up and out through his eyes. He couldn’t help the tears that fell. Probably the first tears he had ever cried for himself.

“Oh, Chanyeol,” Amber exclaimed sadly, immediately moving out of her seat to the spot next to the young man. She wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth, cooing at him as his mother had done when he was younger.

“Sorry,” he sniffled, “I don’t know what has come over me.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, you worrywart,” she teased, “just remember that in this shop right here, we are all as camp as a row of pink tents and we are not – I repeat not – judging you one bit. I am very, very proud of you for coming this far, in the least patronising way possible.”

Chanyeol scoffed, “I haven’t come anywhere. My friends only know because I had a complete meltdown when Jongdae and Minseok got together and when Sehun burst out of the closet to some kind of fanfare I was so jealous you wouldn’t believe. Jongin is a bit more modest about the whole thing but he still managed it. I never did.”

Amber smacked him on the arm, “there you go again! Talking shit about yourself! I won’t have it! The fact that we are even sat here right now having this conversation is a huge, huge thing, idiot. I am proud of you. Let me be proud of you. Be proud of yourself. And when Baekhyun sneaks into your room for another snogging sesh tonight, let him like you back, Chanyeol.” She winked. Winked!

Any attempt at a protest was cut off by the laughter of a child and the cheerful yelps of a dog.

Rhoslyn, who was still dressed as Batman but with the addition of a tiara now, was trying to frisbee a flower crown on whom Chanyeol assumed to be Daisy and the poor dog wasn’t having it.

“Hey, Daisy!” Rhoslyn cried out, “stay still!”

The spritely dog was just jumping about to avoid the over-excitable child. Chanyeol laughed a full belly laugh at the sight before his eyes, finally letting go of Amber who just ruffled his hair and moved back to her seat. The nervous adrenaline in Chanyeol’s system had given a sudden burst of energy and the happiness bubbling in his throat was very welcome.

“Stop that, Rhoslyn,” Kyungsoo was the next person to step out of the door, a bowl of freshly oven-cooked stewing dumplings in his hands. They smelled utterly divine and Chanyeol didn’t think he had even tried one before (his mother had an aversion to carbs that were not rice-based. She said they would make him fat, much to his utter disappointment.)

“Why, Uncle Soo?” Rhoslyn whined, jumping up and down in a stroppy fashion, “she will look really pretty with it on!”

“I am sure she will,” he chuckled, “but Daisy can’t get too excited. She has a very important job to do. You know that.”

Rhoslyn plopped down on the bench next to Amber with a very pouty face, “she can still look pretty while doing an important job, Soo. The singer daddy likes…erm…Beyoncé, I think. She is really, really, super-duper pretty and her job is really, really important because she makes people happy! Does Daisy not make you happy, Uncle Soo?!” Rhoslyn gasped in utter outrage.

Kyungsoo shook his head with a look of utter confusion on his face. The thought processes of a child baffle even the most immature of people, “what are you on about, baby girl?” He chuckled.

Chanyeol leaned over to Rhoslyn, “I think that makes complete sense, Rhoslyn. I think what he means is, Daisy makes him very, very happy and she wouldn’t be able to do that if she got so excited that she forgot about your uncle.”

Rhoslyn thought about this for a second before shrugging, “see, Uncle Soo. The tall strange man knows what I am talking about.”

Chanyeol just laughed at her and nodded, as though he was demonstrating to her that he was on the same childish level she was. In some ways, that was truer than he liked to admit.

“I am glad someone does,” Kyungsoo took the seat to Chanyeol’s right opposite Rhoslyn, reaching to pat him on the shoulder without saying a word but very affectionately, “anyway, no more discussions involving Baekhyun’s abysmal music taste. It is far too upsetting.”

“What are you saying about my impeccable taste, you heathen?” Baekhyun practically burst through the door, quite obviously feeling refreshed from his sleep. He had got changed out of his pyjamas and was wearing tight black jeans and a tucked-in shirt with the most in-your-face floral pattern Chanyeol had ever seen. He was walking around bare foot though, his toes painted just as his fingernails had been the other day, polish scruffily smeared everywhere due to the inexperience of the young girl who painted them.

“I said your music taste is abysmal,” Kyungsoo was dishing himself and Rhoslyn some dumplings each while the young girl poured her uncle a glass of juice, somehow managing to spill half of it on the floor.

“You cheeky shit!” Baekhyun tugged on his friend’s ear while Kyungsoo just cackled at him.

“My Lord, Baekhyun. You are such a stereotypical gay man,” Amber said matter-of-factly, rooting for Chanyeol’s eyes with her own. Chanyeol met her gaze anxiously.

Baekhyun didn’t notice the little exchange going on between the two of them and shouted, “you know it, baby!” He pecked Kyungsoo on the cheek before scooting round to sit on Chanyeol’s unoccupied side, “that’s a bit rich coming from you, missy!”

“And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Amber glared at him.

Baekhyun slouched down in his seat and pulled a grumpy face and said in a voice imitating Amber’s own low register, “Hi! My name is Amber! I am a flaming homosexualist! I absolutely LOVE ladies. I love vaginas. Or if you are a lady without a vagina, that is fine, too. I just HATE men, and I only eat vegetables! Men and meat both equally repulse me. Oh, haven’t you heard? I am a lesbian vegan. I suppose you’ve never met one of those!!”

Amber practically launched herself across the table to smack Baekhyun upside the head. Chanyeol roared with laughter at the scene unfolding before him while Rhoslyn and Kyungsoo just tutted at the pair. Obviously, things like this happened a lot. Chanyeol supposed Amber had been right when she said no one here would judge him for his feelings.

Baekhyun and Amber both noticed Chanyeol losing it over their petty fight and turned to smile at him, knowingly. Amber shot him a reassuring thumb up as if to say, _see, I told you so._ Baekhyun leaned over to peck him on the cheek and leaned his head on his shoulder again. Chanyeol felt truly happy in that moment.

Luna was the last person to step out of the house with the bubbling stew. She was greeted with loud cheers from a very hungry bunch of people and curtsied dramatically.

“Thank you, thank you,” she sang, “your applause is much appreciated.”

It almost went horribly wrong when Luna very nearly tripped over Daisy who had fallen asleep in the middle of the locked courtyard. This only elicited another cheer from everyone when Luna managed to keep her balance. Amber decided to go to her girlfriend’s rescue and brought the bowl to the table.

“My princess in shining armour to the rescue,” Luna giggled and, as soon as Amber placed the bowl down, the nymph girl wrapped her arms around the druid woman’s neck and placed a sweet but sloppy kiss on her lips.

Baekhyun gagged mockingly, “that is disgusting. In front of a child, too.”

“Shut up, daddy,” Rhoslyn snapped with an aggression that shocked Chanyeol. She looked so small and delicate. Looks can be deceiving.

“Cheeky,” the girl’s dad laughed, seemingly bursting at the seams with pride.

Everyone else started laughing, too. As they dished up the food and gobbled it all down in what felt like seconds, Chanyeol was convinced he was floating.

He had never met a lesbian before. Or a druid. Or a nymph. He had certainly never met a soothsayer or a feisty little girl/superhero/popstar/princess. He had certainly never met a beautiful fairy.

In that moment, regardless of the less than desirable circumstances he found himself in, he was more than grateful that he had. If only his friends had been there to share it with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought I'd add a quick note here becaauuuse this chapter deals with internalised homophobia, a topic that is a little...tough going (obviously, you know this if you have read it. Thanks for that :))))))))))) and, as an LGBT+ woman, I know this can be a shitty thing to deal with and, in the very unfortunate but possible instance that this chapter upset someone, I just wanted to say: please, please, please try to find someone to talk to about it. You don't have to tell the world but, the longer you push it down inside of yourself, the more aggressively it will end up bursting out of you. You deserve to lighten the load, even if just a little. Most of all, you are beautiful, loveable, and probably very cool ;) Plus, it does get better. I suppose there is nothing much qualifying me to say this but I promise!!!


	12. Part Three - Your Home Is Where My Heart Is

After the meal had finished, followed by a few hours of idle chit-chat and even a little bit of a sing song (Baekhyun dragged out a speaker, much to the dismay of Kyungsoo and Kyungsoo alone), the group started heading off to bed.

Halfway through the meal, Amber had received a phone call requesting her services so she and Luna wanted to get ample shut-eye before having to leave early in the morning. Likewise, Kyungsoo had to work quite early in the morning so decided to call it a night.

This left just Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Rhoslyn out at the picnic table. It was a very clear evening without a cloud in the sky which, while perfect for anyone who wanted to star gaze, made the air bitterly cold. The three of them were too comfortable to leave, the fresh air that didn’t come very often for two of them being incredibly welcome.

They didn’t really have very much to talk about given that the two men had been up talking to each other all night so the only noise that filled their ears was the low, tinny sound of the portable speaker. The song that played was one Chanyeol was unfamiliar with but was one that was quite nice on the ears nonetheless.

“What’s this?” Chanyeol asked softly, not wanting to ruin the serene atmosphere, nodding towards the speaker.

Baekhyun was sat huddling Rhoslyn tightly in his arms, swaying her to the music as she attempted to make a sculpture out of all the empty glasses and bottles on the table. Chanyeol noticed how the young fairy had his face buried in her hair, sniffing the top of her head in that way he had noticed parents often do with their children. He couldn’t say he understood it, but he remembered how his mother had told him that, when he was a baby himself, his mere scent would invoke such deep affection in the young mom that it was practically nauseating.

“The song?” Baekhyun said eventually, looking up to meet Chanyeol’s eyes, still swaying gently, “It’s called Kiss Me. By a band…Sixpence, something? It is one of my favourites actually,” he said with a soft smile.

“Oh. It’s nice.”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun’s eyes were sparkling it seemed, “I think so. It’s just nice. So many songs these days are about sex and money, not that there is anything wrong with that, really. I just think it is refreshing to find a song that is about the other stuff. The falling in love stuff. Call me an old romantic, I guess.”

“Oh no, I completely get it,” Chanyeol said, “you heard the song ‘Secret Garden’ by IU?”

Baekhyun pondered for a second, and Chanyeol could see he was digging through decades worth of songs stored in his memory to see if he could recall it. Eventually, he shook his head.

“Ah, you are missing out! It is a completely beautiful song, even my mother likes it,” his heart warmed at the smile – the sad smile, but a smile nonetheless – that Baekhyun gave him. Chanyeol rested his hand on Baekhyun’s as it loosened from Rhoslyn’s grip. “It is a song about falling in love with someone and the love you feel for them healing all of the pity in your heart. Them accepting your piteous heart and healing it. It is about the simple things when falling in love; going for lunch together and feeling like a bird flying through the air, so simple but perfect because you are with them. Or buying a certain scented shampoo because you know they will like it. The simple things.”

“You want all of those things, Chanyeol?” The question seemed innocent but Chanyeol could almost feel in the air around them that it wasn’t. The connection he had felt with Baekhyun was no joke and, now he knew they were real feelings and not the work of some spell, he sort of hoped the other man felt the same somehow.

“Yeah. More than anything.”

The air was too tense. Baekhyun turned his attention back to what Rhoslyn was busy occupying herself with but he was completely aware of Chanyeol’s hand as it still lay on top of his own, which was obvious to Chanyeol who could feel it trembling. As the fairy helped his daughter disassemble a very precariously balanced tower she had constructed out of glasses, Chanyeol couldn’t help the way his heart skipped in his chest.

“For the love of Orion,” Baekhyun chuckled out. Chanyeol couldn’t tell if he was referring to the near disaster Rhoslyn created while no one was paying enough mind to her antics, or the thickness of the air, the tense atmosphere which could have been sliced with a hot knife.

Chanyeol just decided to make light of their conversation and chuckled too, “we’re over here, talking like we’re old men while this one,” he affectionately ruffled the small girl’s hair much to her disgust, “is having her own episode of D.I.Y S.O.S!!”

Baekhyun stopped messing with the glasses and turned to face him, properly clasping Chanyeol’s hand in his own, “I _am_ an old man, Chanyeol. I am a very, very old man…”

He leaned forward slightly with sad eyes and lightly pecked Chanyeol on the corner of his mouth. So discreet that Rhoslyn didn’t even notice. Chanyeol sure as hell did though and he felt like he had a family of hummingbirds locked in his chest. Was this Baekhyun’s way of telling him he was barking up the wrong tree? Did the fairy not want to involve himself with a human? Was this just Baekhyun being his eccentric self again? Chanyeol couldn’t tell and it was driving him insane.

A small child broke him out of his thoughts.

“Daddy! Can I go to sleep now? I am very bored because grown ups are boring. I am cold and my arms are itchy because they want to go to sleep, too. Also, daddy, your legs are just too bony and my bottom hurts.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the near nonsensical rant and squeezed his daughter even tighter, laughing as she fidgeted, shouting at the top of her tiny lungs about how he needed to eat more so his hugs would be “more comfy”.

“Baby will you stop _moaning_! You are a medical phenomenon which your itchy sleepy arms so we might need to see a doctor about that. Seems serious.”

Baekhyun pulled a solemn face and Chanyeol was starting to wonder if he wasn’t joking. Did this have something to do with her apparent illness?

No, it turns out.

“I’m joking, baby,” he blew a raspberry on her arm, “does that help the itching?”

“No, daddy. It actually tickles. You are so silly.”

Baekhyun just blew another raspberry and shot up from his seat, child in arms, and started swinging her around and around in circles, much to her sheer delight. Chanyeol just sat and admired the scene before him. It was obvious that Baekhyun loved his daughter to the moon and back and he understood now more than he had before why the decisions Baekhyun had had to make revolving around the young girl had been so hard for him to make.

An outsider may say Baekhyun was an incredibly selfish man for what he had done. He had robbed a child of her freedom because he couldn’t bear to see her die. She had such little quality of life, they may say. She has no mother, no friends, no life outside these four walls. How could someone do such a thing to a child?

Yet, as Chanyeol’s ears were filled with her screams of joyful laughter, as healthy as the laughter of any child should be, he knew Baekhyun wasn’t a bad person for what he had done. Would Rhoslyn have a hard life? Possibly. Would she have a very different life to most people? Definitely. Was she loved? Absolutely.

The way Baekhyun looked at her, as though she housed the sun, the moon, and all the stars in her eyes alone was proof enough of that. The way Kyungsoo, though she didn’t see him as a father figure, cared about her so intensely was enough to show Chanyeol that the young girl had everything she needed here. Certainly, much more than she would have had without the young fairy she knew as her father.

“Hey, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun called to him from his standing place by the door, “you coming or you going to sit there gawping all night?”

“O-oh yeah. Sure. I’m coming.”

Their first stop was the kitchen. Baekhyun grabbed himself a glass of a purple liquid, which he sprinkled with a strange blue powder which popped and cracked like popping candy as it hit the surface. He did all this one-handed while balancing a very sleepy, very heavy child on his left hip.

“Wonder if her arm has fallen asleep yet…” Chanyeol joked.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “she doesn’t half talk nonsense. I reckon it’s the shows she watches on TV. They talk utter, utter crap and I think it’s getting to her head. Kyungsoo said I need to lighten up but I am convinced.”

Chanyeol shook his head and leaned against the doorframe, watching Baekhyun curiously.

“She is just a kid, Baek. They all talk nonsense. Surely you were the same when you were her age?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I was a complete menace, I know that much,” he sounded fond of the memories so Chanyeol decided it was alright to pry.

“How so? I can’t imagine Domestic God of the 21st century being a menace. Please tell me more.”

“Ugh, for fuck’s sake,” he pulled a face like he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t before raising a hand to cover Rhoslyn’s ear, “oops…anyway, I’m never letting anyone talk to Amber ever again. I swear on her life!”

“Oh, don’t be such a misery guts! You do have a very tidy home. I’d say she was right. Whatever, Baek! Stop avoiding the question!”

“What question?” He could look so innocent when he wanted to and his puppy dog eyes made Chanyeol melt. When he bobbed his tongue out at Chanyeol, however? Not so much. “Nosey, nosey Chanyeol! Let me think…OH! There was the time I played on an abandoned bomb site and decided to rebuild the old house that had been blown to rubble. I just sat there, minding my own business, rearranging all the bricks with my magic. I even added some flowers in the spots where the bricks were unsalvageable. Let me tell you, when my mother caught me, she nearly put me up for adoption.”

The mental imagery of a tiny, naïve Baekhyun getting yelled at because he couldn’t bear to see something broken but didn’t exactly go the right way about fixing it, was amusing to say the least.

As they made their way up to the bedrooms, Baekhyun told him a couple more ridiculous tales like the times he tried to show other children his powers by fixing butterflies’ wings, or by manipulating water in the local stream. He told him of the time he presented a bunch of flowers out of thin air to present to a young boy in his class in secondary school, which apparently caused his mother severe stress for months, for more reasons than one.

Chanyeol’s favourite story was one about a Christmas-themed fancy-dress competition which Baekhyun was supposed to be entering but forgot until five minutes before.

“I decided I’d just get my wings out, as you do, put on my mother’s best summer dress and be on my way. I was aiming for the angel Gabriel. What I got was a smack from my mom.”

He was seventeen when that happened, much to Chanyeol’s utter joy.

Chanyeol was broken off from the father and daughter pair then while Rhoslyn got ready for bed. It was a private moment and Chanyeol didn’t even need to be asked to wait out in the hall. He didn’t want to impose.

As he stood there, twiddling his thumbs, overhearing Baekhyun and Rhoslyn chatting in what he now guessed was a fairy language of some ilk, Kyungsoo popped his head out of his room.

“Is that you, Baekhyun?” He asked.

“Oh, no it’s Chanyeol. Baekhyun is putting Rhoslyn to sleep.”

“Ah okay. Hey, Chanyeol!” He waved with a friendly smile, “actually, you could help me instead if that’s alright?”

“Erm, yeah sure. What’s up?”

Kyungsoo opened the door to his room fully then and beckoned for Chanyeol to come inside. Chanyeol thought he was inside possibly the tidiest room this side of the globe (Minseok’s entire home had the other side of the world covered in that department.)

Daisy was asleep in a plush bed on one side of the room but, apart from that, there wasn’t a thing on the floor. The carpet was so soft under his bare feet and Chanyeol made a mental note to clear up his own room when he got home (whenever that may be) because it was cleansing for the mind to be somewhere so tidy.

“I’ve been looking for the next volume of the book I am reading and I can’t bloody find it for the life of me. Would you be able to see if you can spot it for me?”

Chanyeol made his way over to a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf piled high with neatly arranged rows of books. Each book was incredibly thick and, apart from a small, inscribed title and volume number on each one, they were all pure white.

“Woah,” Chanyeol said. That was a lot of white books.

“Ha. I know,” Kyungsoo scoffed, “all of the technological advancements in the world and braille books are still fucking massive. The book I am reading at the minute had to split into separate volumes because it’s too long. Pain the arse, it is.”

“Which book?”

“Lord of the rings. It’s a long one. I need the second volume.”

“Ugh. Too bloody long for me. I couldn’t even get through the movies.”

Kyungsoo found this quite amusing, “when you’ve lived for as long as I have, a few hours to get through a film is nothing.”

Chanyeol shuddered, “it will never not be weird to be reminded of how old you are.”

“Charming.”

Chanyeol began scouring the shelf for the book Kyungsoo wanted, his mind going haywire at the severe lack of mental stimulation. So many white books. He was about to go cross-eyed when he finally spotted a pile of stray books propped up against the shelf on the floor.

“Ah! Got it!”

He passed it to Kyungsoo who dragged his fingers across the indecipherable bumps on the front of the book and smiled upon realising he had the correct one.

“It was on the floor,” Chanyeol explained, “I’m guessing that isn’t where it was left.”

“Nope. Baekhyun put them all in precise alphabetical order – I swear that guy has OCD – so it should have been on the second shelf from the bottom. Rhoslyn has probably been trying to teach herself to read braille again.”

“She is a girl of many talents,” Chanyeol said admirably.

“Oh, absolutely. The kid speaks five languages, learned sign language in British, American, and Korean “just in case”, and now she is coming for _my_ brand? I do not think so.”

This made Chanyeol cackle. He hadn’t realised before how funny Kyungsoo was. Such a dry sense of humour was rather pleasant.

“Your _brand_?”

“Yeah. I am the amazing “D.O.” to people round here. The blind fortune teller. How can I be a con-man if I can’t even see my customers? It’s my USP and miss fancy pants wants to one-up me. Not on my watch.”

“What kind of kid has time for all of those things, anyway? When I was 7, I was too busy picking my nose and eating it or trapping field mice in shoe boxes to even pick up a book full stop.”

Kyungsoo scrunched his nose up in disgust, “that is disgusting. I suppose she just had to learn to entertain herself. She doesn’t have much choice,” he shrugged sadly and sighed, “when your father is as boring as her dad is, it’s just coping, really.” He wore a cheeky grin.

“Har har,” the father in question entered the room then, making his way over to the window.

“Oh hey, Baekhyun. Didn’t see you there!” This earned Kyungsoo a very light kick in the shin.

Chanyeol felt like a potato in a field of roses as he watched the other two men move about the room. They clearly had a system going here and Chanyeol didn’t know if he should leave. So, he stood there like a lemon.

“Soo, you want these curtains open or shut?” Baekhyun asked as he rearranged some miscellaneous items on the window sill.

“Shut,” the other man called from his position by the bed. He was setting an alarm clock, “it is freezing outside and the grout on those windows is practically non-existent. The draft chills me to my core.”

“Fair enough.” Baekhyun called to Chanyeol then, much to his surprise because he was trying to figure a way to get out unnoticed, “will you go in the wardrobe and grab a pillow and a quilt, please? They should be on the top shelf.

He did as he was told and headed over to the wardrobe. It was packed to the brim with clothes, each item tagged with a label in braille, probably notifying the item’s description.

“Have you seriously labelled every item in here?” Chanyeol asked as he dumped the quilt and pillow on a chair by the door.

Baekhyun was _now_ rearranging the books on the shelf again, eyebrows scrunched up in thought as he made sure they were all in the correct place.

Kyungsoo was the one who answered Chanyeol in the end, “he certainly did. Every single one. I used to be quite the fashion lover –“

“Christian D.O.!!” Baekhyun interrupted from his spot on the floor.

“Absolutely!” Kyungsoo cheered, “and the thought of leaving the house and actually going out in outfits that do not match physically pains me. So, Baekhyun tagged my clothes. Pretty nifty, I’d say.”

“People don’t say ‘’nifty’’ anymore, babes!” Baekhyun now had his head in a draw, rearranging balls of socks from dark to light.

Chanyeol found it mind-boggling how Baekhyun literally thought of every tiny, minuscule detail. He was the engine of the entire operation. Chanyeol had thought that Veronica owned and ran the shop when he first arrived, judging by the way the old witch bossed Baekhyun around like he was her lacky but she really had just left him to it. She was nowhere to be found but Baekhyun was working like a trooper. Chanyeol did wonder, however, how often he truly had time to himself.

“But they say ‘babes’?” Kyungsoo asked in a snarky tone.

“Yes, babes,” the fairy finally stood up and walked over to give Kyungsoo a hug and pecked him on the cheek, “they do say ‘babes’. You good to go?”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and shooed Baekhyun away, “yes, yes, yes. Stop fretting. In fact, get out! Leave me alone. You are smothering me with your OCD ways! The world will not end if there is an item out of place, you know.”

“Yes, I know that, smart aleck. But you might not be able to find shit! Or you might trip and fall! Or-or you might go outside in an awful outfit and that would be actually bad! Not to mention Rhoslyn! This house is the only place she spends 99.9% of her days! How would she cope if it was a mess? ...WELL!?”

He had actually snapped, it seemed. This guy was as frazzled as they come.

Kyungsoo just ignored him as though this was a regular occurrence.

“Chanyeol,” the soothsayer said as he pulled back his bed sheets and began to climb into bed, “could you remove this drama queen from my room and cheer him up a bit? Maybe smooch him again? That might help. He is distressing me and the dog.”

The dog was very much asleep and didn’t care but Chanyeol obeyed his orders anyway, albeit with a scarlet tinge to his cheeks.

“Night, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol called, grabbing the quilt and pillow, turning Baekhyun out of the door.

“No, Yeol! The quilt is for Soo!” Baekhyun whined.

“Out!” Kyungsoo threw a spare pillow at the door. That’s what he thought of that.

Chanyeol guided the fairy by his shoulders across the hall towards Baekhyun’s door and bid him a good night before turning to head to his own room down the hall. Just as he was walking away, Baekhyun grabbed his wrist.

“Erm…weren’t you also ordered to give me a smooch?” He asked shyly.

The fairy opened his door and stepped aside to allow Chanyeol to step into his bedroom.

“Come in,” Baekhyun gestured for him to step over the threshold, “I don’t bite. Promise.”

Chanyeol entered the fairy’s room and couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face at the sight before him.

First of all, it was clear who had been given absolute creative control of the rest of the shop. The room looked like some new-age hippy had vomited all of their worldly possessions over it with elaborate wall hangings decorated with everything from tie-dyed elephants to intricate hand-stitched patterns. The room had a wooden floor but there were so many rugs on the ground it was difficult to tell. The bed wasn’t really a bed at all but rather a thin double mattress on the floor. This doesn’t mean it wasn’t a well-presented bed, however; it was made so immaculately that it could easily pass a hotel room inspection (that is if hotels used silk sheets and patchwork scatter cushions.) The only pieces of assembled furniture in the room were an antique armchair in the corner by the window and a fold-away screen for getting dressed behind. Everything else, books, records, the record player, clothes, and shoes, existed in designated boxes along one wall.

The room smelled like musty incense and was ambiently lit with yellow fairy lights and a Himalayan salt lamp. It was a really cosy room and it pleased Chanyeol to see that Baekhyun had somewhere in the house he could truly call his own personal space. Every corner of that room practically screamed “Baekhyun”.

“Nice room,” Chanyeol said, very impressed.

“Thanks…” he hesitated, “actually, I was wondering if you would maybe want to…sleep here…tonight? No pressure, like, just…”

Chanyeol’s breath hitched in his throat. He would have loved to and didn’t really need an excuse but Baekhyun gave him one anyway.

“I mean, it was nice yesterday when we were…chatting, and I-I…” he hesitated again before taking a deep breath and saying, “I like you Chanyeol. I like spending time with you and I know you’ll want to leave when we give you the green light so I want to make the most of it.”

Chanyeol walked over to the fairy hesitantly, taking tentative steps before taking his hands in his own, “I’d like that.”

The fairy breathed a huge sigh of relief before Chanyeol made him take another one again.

“But,” the human started anxiously, “just sleeping, right? Or just lying in bed? No…erm…sex.”

“No. Definitely not. Not if you don’t want to, at the least,” Baekhyun stroked a thumb over the back of Chanyeol’s hand comfortingly, “I get it, Chanyeol. You aren’t too hot on this whole ‘gay’ thing. That’s fine. I won't force you to do anything you don’t want to, I can promise you that much.”

“Is it that obvious?” Chanyeol laughed bitterly, almost.

“I just got a feeling,” he smiled a kind smile, running his hand through Chanyeol’s hair gently, “I’ve met a lot of guys in your position, Chanyeol. You just have to trust me.”

He moved to get changed for bed then, rifling through the boxes, sifting through neatly folded clothes until he came across what he was searching for.

“Ah! Here they are!” He flung some clothes at Chanyeol which the human man failed miserably to catch, ending up flinging himself across the bed. Baekhyun chuckled at him softly, “careful there, Yeol. We don’t want any broken bones now, do we?”

“What’s this for?” Chanyeol asked as he unfolded the clothes in question, a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a dishevelled looking t-shirt emblazoned with a Misfits band logo, the yellowish-green skull cracking and fading due to being overwashed.

Baekhyun looked at Chanyeol like he was as stupid as a monkey in a lab, “they’re pyjamas…what do you think they are for?” He pulled a smug face before turning back to grab himself a pair of pyjamas from a different box. Chanyeol just sat looking confused, gawping at Baekhyun as he waltzed behind the dressing screen.

Chanyeol decided to utilise the opportunity for semi-privacy to change into the clothes that he had been given, perplexed as to what possessed Baekhyun, who would be described as slightly below average height at best, to believe that Chanyeol, a man of above average height, would fit into his clothes. Nonetheless, he began stripping out of his clothes, as quickly as he could so as not to be caught short.

Much to his surprise, the clothes fit him perfectly. If anything, the t-shirt was a little too big. Far too big for the fairy who was so short, the dressing screen didn’t even reveal the very top of his head. Chanyeol inspected the shirt closer, noticing that it had torn around the seams of the sleeves, and he was very impressed that it was the merchandise of one of the best punk bands of the 80s.

Baekhyun stepped out from behind the screen then and grabbed Chanyeol’s discarded clothes, folding them up and placing them in a wash basket tucked away in the corner of the room. He was wearing very short pyjama shorts, which revealed a cluster of floral tattoos around his left shin and a cotton anklet on his right, and a loose-fitting white t-shirt.

He moved to grab a red silken dressing gown from a hook on the bedroom door and draped it around himself, revealing the gown’s opulent design; embroidered dragons and the Chinese symbol for good luck, both in a glistening gold thread. As he waltzed over to the small bedside table to light an incense stick, Chanyeol’s only resonating thought was that he looked so incredibly elegant. The young fairy was a true natural beauty and the sight made Chanyeol’s breath catch in his throat. 

“Seen a ghost?” Baekhyun teased. Clearly unable to sit still, and clearly making a concerted effort to set some kind of mood, he set up his record player and placed a Kate Bush vinyl on the turntable. He gently swayed as Running Up That Hill gently flowed from the point at which the needle met plastic, the spitting sound that emanated soothing as it reached Chanyeol’s ears.

“Erm, no. It’s just…” Chanyeol fiddled with a loose thread at the bottom of the shirt, barely noticing in his nervousness that the thread was pulling at the material and bunching it up.

Baekhyun stared at the other man expectantly, eyebrow raised, not stopping in his movements for one second.

“Y-you look r-really nice.”

The young fairy looked almost bashful, and he shyly buried his face in his hands, before swatting Chanyeol on the arm.

“Shut up, you big softie! You’re making me blush.”

“It’s true, though! I don’t think you have any idea how gorgeous you are and I can’t believe I just said that, Oh God!” It was Chanyeol’s turn to be embarrassed then, “I mean, it’s completely true but I don’t know why I said it! What’s in that incense? I think it is sending me doo-lally! God, I can’t stop talk-.”

He was cut off from his incessant, nonsensical ramblings with an abrupt peck on the lips. His eyes widened to the size of saucers as the fairy’s soft lips brushed against his. As he pulled away, he was left with a sweet, citrus taste in his mouth.

“Mmm! That tastes nice! What is it?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the other man’s attempt to feign nonchalance, “it’s lip gloss. Specifically, an orange-scented lip balm made with bee’s wax. That’s why it’s so tacky and smooth. Why? You want some?”

Chanyeol nodded. The overpowering but sweet scent of the balm that clung to Chanyeol’s mouth area would be one he would surely associate with the intense feelings Baekhyun stirred up within him and any opportunity to savour that feeling was one he couldn’t refuse to pass up.

Expecting to be handed a tube of lip gloss, Chanyeol was very surprised to be met, yet again, by a pair of plump lips. The kiss was much deeper this time and left Chanyeol melting from his head to his toes. He could have sworn he had a fire burning in the pit of his stomach and, when the shorter man reached up on his tiptoes to drag his delicate fingers through the taller’s hair, his mind started to spin.

As they kissed, the smaller of the two hummed, his lips stretching into a grin, a grin so wide that Chanyeol bumped into his teeth. They stayed there for an amount of time neither would be able to recall since time seemed to stop in its tracks as they became entirely lost in each other. Chanyeol, for one, felt like his senses were on fire; the sound of Baekhyun’s humming, spilling out from the back of his throat as they kissed rushing through Chanyeol’s mind, the smell of his herbal essence shampoo almost too overpowering. He was so overcome with emotion that he felt tears brimming in his eyes.

That was until Baekhyun started to move his hands down towards Chanyeol’s hips. Chanyeol trusted Baekhyun enough to know that he wouldn’t do anything to make him feel uncomfortable but that didn’t make him any less nervous. Then Baekhyun did something that stunned Chanyeol out of his skin, causing him to pull his head backwards in surprise.

“What was that, Baek!?” He spluttered.

To the human’s utter horror, the fairy had taken Chanyeol’s lower lip into his own mouth before pulling on it, ever so gently, with his teeth.

“What’s wrong?” Baekhyun looked genuinely concerned as he placed his hands on either side of the other’s face, searching into his eyes in panic, looking for any sign that he had caused him harm.

“D-did you just…bite me?!” his voice practically squeaked as he forced the words out of burning lungs. Was this normal for fairies? Was this how they showed affection? The thoughts that raced through his head forced their way to the back of his eyes, forcing them to widen in horror.

This did not seem to sway the young fairy however who merely breathed a shaky sigh of relief, along with a soft chuckle. He pulled Chanyeol into his chest and buried his head into his neck, placing gentle butterfly kisses over the area where Chanyeol’s jugular pounded against his skin.

“May Orion bless you, Chanyeol,” he whispered, “you are so innocent it is almost worrying.”

The taller brought his hand to rest tentatively on Baekhyun’s head, pure impulse encouraging him to pull him closer to his side, the warmth of his breath blowing on his neck heating Chanyeol on the inside.

“So, you’re telling me biting people is normal?”

The only response was a slight nod and a restricted shrug, trapped by strong arms.

A few more moments passed as they swayed to the music before Baekhyun placed one final kiss on the side of Chanyeol’s jaw and pulled him over to the bed.

“Come on, my lovely,” he said as he pulled Chanyeol with one hand and folded back the bed sheets with the other, “we should probably get to sleep. I don’t know about you, but I am knackered. Not to mention the fact that a certain small child of mine has taken to waking up at five a.m.”

After awkwardly shuffling around in an attempt to get comfortable, they eventually settled down to rest. Baekhyun’s eyes started to droop almost the instant his head hit the pillow but Chanyeol wasn’t quite finished.

“How come you have clothes in your room that are clearly almost twice your size, Baek?”

He knew he was being nosey but curiosity and fatigue had gotten the absolute best of him.

“Nosey, nosey, Yeol,” he poked Chanyeol’s nose with his finger to highlight his point then went to stoke Chanyeol’s cheek with the back of his fingers, “now, don’t be jealous because jealous isn’t a cute look.”

Chanyeol beckoned him to continue with a reassuring, and enthusiastic, nod.

“Well, since you asked. They belonged to my ex,” he rolled his eyes and tutted, “utter fucking prick, he was. He didn’t want kids and constantly complained that I had one. I never let him actually meet Rhoslyn of course but he eventually fucked off. Thank Orion. I only saw him for a couple of months and all I have left are these.”

He tugged at Chanyeol’s top absentmindedly.

“Why’d you keep them if he was such a prick?”

“Erm, genius, because this is limited-edition merchandise and I bought the trousers so I technically own them, anyway.”

He started to push his fingers through the holes in the sleeve of the shirt, his cold fingers brushing against Chanyeol’s red-hot shoulder making the other man shiver in shock.

“He had good taste in music, at least,” Chanyeol whispered, his breath forming a bubble in his throat as pure happiness started to brew inside of him. He would never have imagined that he and the young fairy would end up together like they were. Just lying together. Completely content in the other’s company. It was like a breath of fresh air.

“Yeah that was the only good thing about him.” His eyes looked so said as he said this but his smile and mindless tugging at Chanyeol’s shirt told a different story, “I suppose nothing can come quite close to perfect when you threw perfection down the drain. I destroyed a perfect marriage. I thought the universe would never reward me with someone to love again so I threw myself at the first ass hat I met…”

As his voice trailed off, Chanyeol couldn’t help the feeling of disappointment as it hit him right in the gut. He couldn’t help but be a little offended at what he had just heard; he would never be good enough because he wasn’t Kyungsoo. It was to be expected really and he shouldn’t have expected much more given that his ‘thing’ with Baekhyun – whatever it may have been – was only temporary anyway, even if it did span beyond the time he was trapped at the shop. That didn’t mean he wasn’t disappointed that he couldn’t give Baekhyun what he wanted.

“You, however,” Baekhyun continued, “are nothing like him. You are special, Yeol. I don’t know what it is yet, it is all so new but I haven’t felt this alive – this young! – in a long time.”

Before Chanyeol had time to process this, the young fairy had started to shift lightly, his eyes gradually turning into jet black voids, a sight which sucked the air out of Chanyeol’s lungs.

Then, he closed his eyes as though he was in deep concentration until his skin began to glow with a silver sheen, almost as though it were covered in glass.

“You see that?”

Chanyeol nodded, his mouth beginning to dry at the thought of being in the presence of an actual magical being, a thought he didn’t think he would ever get used to.

“That’s the energy that I draw from you, from being with you, I mean. Just like the floaty, airy feeling humans get when they are falling for someone, I get that, too but it physically manifests itself in my magic,” he chuckled, “ what the hell have you done to me, Yeol?”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	13. Part Three - Footfalls like Bombshells

Countless days passed just as Chanyeol’s first at The Broken Vial had done; they passed as gracefully and with as much ease as water in a stream. No strain, no stress, none of the worries that Chanyeol carried with him throughout his daily life. His mind was a calm, picturesque lake, filled to the brim with vibrant life; his heart was a ferocious ocean, threatening to spill onto the land, sweeping up everything in his wake.

The dichotomy of emotions made Chanyeol feel, for the first time in his life, that his universe was in balance. He was completely content in himself for the first time. Lest he allow himself to remember that he would, very soon, have to leave behind the small section of the world in which he felt truly at home, Chanyeol believed that no force on earth could allow his happiness to waver.

There was only one explanation to Chanyeol’s mind for his catastrophic emotional realignment; Baekhyun.

The young man and the captivatingly beautiful fairy had lived in each other’s pockets ever since they had first locked eyes, unable to break the tether which bound their souls. They both felt as if the other made them whole.

Chanyeol had previously felt as though he were a cork in a flowing stream; he wasn’t part of the drifting of life like everyone else around him. He never fit in the same way as others seemed to, he couldn’t simply navigate around life’s obstacles the way he believed he should, but instead became stranded at every rock and hurdle, thrown from left to right, just as the water wished him to be. Never changing, forever wishing he could get back on track.

He never felt as though he was in the driver’s seat of his life; he was just being taken for a ride.

He genuinely believed Baekhyun was the one who could change all of that. The fire that Baekhyun kindled within Chanyeol spread through his entire body, setting his mind alight and his heart aflame. It convinced him once and for all that he was put on this earth to love another. It gave him the resolve, the energy, the  _need_ to take control of his path in life to ensure that Baekhyun’s path forever fell beside his.

The young fairy had given Chanyeol a new lease of life and he would be damned if he was going to let him go.

Was this an unhealthy way of thinking? After all, placing the burden of one’s happiness on another person can be quite overwhelming for both parties; one becomes overly dependant on the other while their partner is left feeling suffocated by the other’s needs, and their inability to hold their own.

Despite the nagging voice in Chanyeol’s head that was telling him to take a step back, go home, grow and develop into a blossomed version of himself using the power that Baekhyun had given him, he was too infatuated and completely enchanted by the fairy to force himself to leave.

He doubted Baekhyun would want him to leave, either.

These thoughts ran through his mind repetitively as he lay awake one morning, forcing themselves to ebb and flow on a continuous loop as though they were the insatiable musical notes of a song elicited from a stuck record.

He had been lying awake for around three hours at that point, although he couldn’t be sure. The hours in the twilight always gave the illusion of passing much faster than in the daytime. This was both a blessing and a curse because, while it gave him less time to admire Baekhyun’s naturally serene, calming aura as he slept soundly beside him, it made time fly by in anticipation for spending another day with the man he would surely fall in love with.

Maybe he already had.

It was surely nearing dawn as the beginnings of birdsong were slipping through the slightly-open window, bringing with them the crisp morning air. Chanyeol felt his chest rise gently with every breath, the cool breeze entering his lungs, leaving behind the sensation that his chest was getting lighter.

Carefully, he turned on his side to face Baekhyun. The fairy was fast asleep, completely oblivious to the rest of the world, unaware of Chanyeol’s soft gaze. A soft chuckle left Chanyeol’s lips as he watched Baekhyun’s lips flutter with each soft exhale; he wasn’t a snorer but he did have a strange habit of breathing through tightly pursed lips, causing his entire mouth to ripple. Chanyeol thought it was one of his most adorable quirks.

Another adorable habit of Baekhyun’s was the way he lay across the bed as though he were a starfish, his arms and legs hanging over the sides, the blanket all the way down by his feet. His jet-black hair fanned across the mattress (the pillow always being the first thing to end up on the floor as he fell into dreamland) and left his dainty face on full display.

Chanyeol carefully allowed his hands to hover over the fairy’s face as he made a clear mental note of every freckle, each tiny blemish, and every pore. He never wanted to forget the map of Baekhyun in his mind. Baekhyun always made sure to allow Chanyeol to forget his own flaws when they were intimate together; he played with Chanyeol’s protruding ears as though they were fascinating to him, he left butterfly kisses on the bags under his eyes to alleviate any fatigue, and he never – never – made Chanyeol feel ashamed for being reluctant to take their relationship to the next level of intimacy.

He made light of the ironic fact that Chanyeol felt as small as a bug when, in reality, he was a tower of a man. He made light of his limitations. He said they were what had him convinced the giant was meant for him.

Chanyeol was certain he would have done the same for Baekhyun…had he had any imperfections, had he had a single limitation.

His private musings were interrupted when his clumsy clown hands dropped out of the air and brushed against Baekhyun’s porcelain cheek.

A shimmer of golden flecks rose to the surface of the fairy’s skin as his body tensed and relaxed in quick succession and faded as he stretched his arms above his head and smacked his lips together.

“What time is it?” He barely whispered, his voice rough from sleep. He rubbed his eyes with his slender hands, and let out a huge yawn.

“Around 4 am,” Chanyeol whispered in reply, moving to bring Baekhyun’s soft hands from his eyes and to link them with the young man’s larger, rougher hands.

The sunlight was slowly drifting through the thin cotton curtains and casting its warm glow over Baekhyun’s form.

“Are you okay, my sweet? Why are you awake so early?” He still hadn’t opened his eyes but the way he squeezed Chanyeol’s hand showed his attentiveness.

“Oh, no reason. I was just thinking,” he tried to sound nonchalant but the way his voice quaked gave away the smirk on his lips.

“About what?” Baekhyun was smirking to as he drew circles on the back of Chanyeol’s hand with a freshly painted nail (done by himself this time so it was far, far neater than usual).

“Erm, nothing much,” Chanyeol teased, “the economy, what I’m going to have for breakfast, how much- “

He was cut off by a slap on the arm, “Hey! You are laying right next to this but you are thinking about  _economics?!_ ” he gestured wildly to himself, drawing Chanyeol’s attention to the oversized hoodie (drawstrings diligently removed and tied to the door handle) he wore as his nightclothes and the bare, tattooed legs without a speck of hair that the garment left exposed. 

Chanyeol feigned injury and rubbed his arm with a sad pout before his façade cracked and his face broke out into a grin, “you dope! I was obviously thinking about you! How could I not think about “this”? You are absolutely stunning, babe.”

Rolling over and with an arm outstretched, he beckoned a now blushing Baekhyun to cuddle up to him and pulled him in tightly so that the fairy’s head was squished against his chest.

The reply was muffled by Chanyeol’s nightshirt but the hot breath as it left warm condensation on Chanyeol’s cold torso was blatantly obvious as it caused a shiver to ripple through his whole being.

“What was that, hon’?” He ran a hand through Baekhyun impossibly glossy hair as the other man lifted his head to meet Chanyeol’s eyes.

“I’ve told you not to lie to me, Yeol,” he sulked like a petulant child.

“I’m not lying! You  _are_  gorgeous!”

Baekhyun buried his head in Chanyeol’s shoulder in embarrassment. It was at times like this that the usually self-assured and confident Baekhyun revealed his insecurities, something he only enabled Chanyeol to see. 

“I know you hate your freckles and moles but I think they are beautiful because they make you…well, you. And  _you_  will never know how special I think you are, Baek. Words couldn’t describe.”

Baekhyun gently lifted his head to meet Chanyeol’s eyes again, his own orbs seemingly glossing over with tears, “you really mean that?”

Instead of replying – he doubted Baekhyun would ever believe him, anyway – he took the fairy’s face in his hands, placing his palms on each cheek, and began leaving soft kisses on each mole, starting at the one on his ear, moving to the one on the bridge of his nose, one on his cheek, and ending on the tiny freckle in the corner of his mouth.

He was about to move away when Baekhyun grabbed a hold of his hands and pulled his lips back towards his own, latching onto them with such fervour it was almost as though he depended on the breath from Chanyeol’s lungs to survive.

They deepened the kiss, fully immersed in one another, Chanyeol’s body swelling with so much lust that every single muscle turned to jelly and his mind began to fog, his only resounding thought being the incessant reminder of Baekhyun’s closeness.

It wasn’t until Chanyeol felt Baekhyun’s skin fizz with static energy and shift under him that they broke apart.

He slowly moved his head so that Baekhyun filled his field of vision and the breath immediately caught in his throat at the sight before him.

Baekhyun rushed to cover himself with the long-since discarded bed sheet but not before Chanyeol could take in the magnificent sight before him.

“Wow…” was the most articulate thing he could utter but it still stopped Baekhyun in his tracks, causing him to stare up at the other man with his now entirely black orbs.

He had obviously lost control of his human form in the heat of the moment because, for the first time, he was fully exposing his full fairy form to Chanyeol.

It was far more beautiful than the human man could have ever imagined; his deep blue veins mapped out the intricacy of his life source across his entire body, the colour pulsing in a steady rhythm as his heart worked effortlessly to keep him alive. He was bursting with so much life anyway but for Chanyeol to witness it with his own eyes was just…breath-taking.

The human man shuffled over to the edge of the mattress where Baekhyun had scarpered and rested his hands on his exposed legs, relishing in the feeling of the blue regions pulsing under the pads of his fingers. The contact made Baekhyun’s skin glow once again.

“I-I didn’t mean to do that,” Baekhyun stuttered, as he lowered his gaze in shame, “sorry you had to see this monstrosity…”

Chanyeol’s heart sank at his dejected expression and he didn’t even have to think before he peppered Baekhyun’s legs, arms and face with kisses, tracing diligently along every single vein, refusing to abate his actions until Baekhyun relaxed underneath him.

“You are still beautiful, Baekhyun.”

The fairy was the one to initiate the kiss this time. It was soft, gentle, and brief but when he pulled away, his smile was so wide it made Chanyeol’s heart skip a beat.

“Thank you. Thank you so, so much. I mean that,” the sincerity of his gaze made the other man shiver.

“I know you do. So do I.”

They lay down together then, Baekhyun still in his fairy form, Chanyeol still utterly captivated.

“Next time, I’ll show you my wings.”

“I can’t wait.”

There they lay until, in perfect synchronisation, they drifted back into dreamland, both of their minds filled with images of each other as the sun rose to gift them with another day.   

 

 

The next thing Chanyeol was conscious of – around two hours later - was a soft shuffling sound coming from the other side of Baekhyun’s room. In his groggy state, he struggled to identify the source of the strange noise and it wasn’t until something heavy dropped on the mattress next to him that the clouds of dreamland vanished from his mind.

“Rhoslyn?!” He whispered in shock, not expecting to see the young girl in such close proximity. Daisy, he would understand but the small child would surely not be permitted by her father to be awake so early in the morning. Making all the effort he could to not wake Baekhyun he sat up, making room for Rhoslyn to sit upright.

“What are you awake so early?”

The small girl stared at him blankly for a moment or so, curiously studying his face, before an idea made its way into her mind and emerged from her face in the form of a frown.

“I don’t have to tell you why because you aren’t my dad,” she huffed, bringing her arms to fold across her chest. She was wearing a bright pink onesie, complete with a hood sporting bunny ears which made her display of annoyance rather amusing. Looks could be deceiving and Rhoslyn was no exception to the rule.

“That is fair enough,” he said with a light chuckle, taking a glance at Baekhyun to see if he had been roused from sleep. He hadn’t. “Your dad is asleep, though, and I don’t think we should wake him just yet. You can talk to me if you would like but, if not, have some more sleep. I’ll tell your dad to find you when he wakes up.”

Chanyeol had absolutely no idea how to reason or negotiate with a child. Given that he was an only child himself, he had only ever grown up around adults and, while he certainly had his own distinct streak of immaturity and child-like naivety, he had never developed the ability to apply this to an actual relationship with a child. Sure, he had the odd cousin with young children but their relationships never went beyond casual meetings, maybe a small gift on a special occasion.

The mere thought of having encroached on the life of this small family and having to deal with the repercussions of upsetting the smooth flow of their routine made Chanyeol’s blood run cold. He had really come to care for Baekhyun dearly and wanted to spend time with him, enjoying his presence but he couldn’t shake the thought that Baekhyun was Rhoslyn’s father and that he was just getting in their way.

“What do you think, Rhoslyn?”

“I think I will stay here.”

“Your daddy is sleeping, though so, maybe, you could speak to him la-“

“NO!” She was starting to become stroppy. She had a seriously fiery temper and Chanyeol had to admit that he was rather impressed. She was a child who was very sure of herself. “I want to sleep with my daddy. Here. You can stay, Chenyal because you are his girlfriend- “

“I am his what?! Wait. No, that’s –.”

“- and I don’t want to make my daddy upset by making you go away but I want and actually need the pillow so my head doesn’t get wonky and –.”

“Wonky? But Rhoslyn, Rhoslyn, no! I – you, I think you are confused.”

“Chenyal, you can lie over there on the small chair – “

“On the chair!? Do you realise how tall I am, Rhoslyn? I can’t sleep on a chair, that’s ridicu –.”

“I am not ridilucus! My daddy says I am very smart!!”

The two of them bickered in a cacophony of the deep yet stunned tone of the young man and the high-pitched cries of a young child, neither of them paying much mind to the way the volume of their voices rose above the silence. That was until a third voice stunned them both into silence.

“What on  _earth_ is going on here?!” Baekhyun had been woken up – unsurprisingly – and was in the midst of using his spindly arms to prop his body up on the bed.

Neither Rhoslyn nor Chanyeol made a move to explain themselves or their bickering incident. Chanyeol least of all knew how to explain himself and was honestly beginning to tremble slightly at the thought of being scolded by the father, who was now beginning to wake up fully, his eyes finally focusing on the two figures in front of him.

“Rhoslyn, would you care to explain why you are in my room so early in the morning picking fights with grown-ups who, quite frankly should know better…” He glanced across to a slightly ashamed Chanyeol and rolled his eyes. Chanyeol really thought he had gone and done it then. That was until Baekhyun winked succinctly so the other spectator wouldn’t catch on.

“Daddy, that isn’t true!” Rhoslyn was beginning to whine in the way that children do, and started to bounce he small body up and down from where she was sat, displaying her utter frustration, “I came here because I had a really scary dream and I wanted to snuggle with you to keep me safe but I can’t because…” She cut off her own words mid-sentence, possibly because she was about to say something she shouldn’t.

“’Because’ what, baby?” Baekhyun looked very concerned.

Rhoslyn scrunched her face up in deep thought, her immature mind attempting to transform an abstract thought into words that would help her father understand the feelings even she didn’t understand. No words came but she did steal a glance at Chanyeol.

When the realisation hit him, Chanyeol’s blood ran cold.

“Oh.” Was all Baekhyun said. He didn’t look at Chanyeol. Honestly, how could he respond to that?

Chanyeol took it upon himself to dissolve the issue and stood to leave.

“I-I should probably head out then. I don’t want to interfere.” The words came out of his mouth with surprising confidence but his heart just wasn’t in it. He would be a fool to try to convince anyone that he wanted to leave. Baekhyun’s presence brightened his entire world and everything else just seemed…flat. That didn’t stop him from recognising his place, however; he was just temporary. Mere music in the wind. He had no right to infringe upon this small family. He was no part of it.

Baekhyun shocked him with his next words, however, “you, mister, will do no such thing.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widened in shock. What was Baekhyun thinking? Judging by the way the fairy brought his hands to his mouth, biting his nails anxiously, he, too, was none the wiser.

Chanyeol tentatively moved over to sit back on the bed whilst Baekhyun beckoned for Rhoslyn to squeeze into his lap. She did just that and he lovingly stroked her long blonde locks as he spoke.

“Rhoslyn,” he softly began, “why do you think Chanyeol is here?” He scrunched his eyebrows up in contemplation, searching for some means of clarification, “I mean, why do you think daddy is spending special time with Chanyeol?”

A very nervous Chanyeol had no idea what to make of this and began to wring his hands together to knead away the anxiety coursing through his veins. Baekhyun, attentive as ever, noticed this and held out a hand to take Chanyeol’s clammy ones in his own, all whilst still doting on his daughter.

“Erm…”Rhoslyn began, clearly struggling to decide, “because Chanyal is daddy’s special person and…” She trailed off, only briefly looking towards Chanyeol before snapping her eyes away.

“And what do you think that means, baby?”

“It means like Amber with Luna and…like how they are special together. They are a bit like friends, a bit like you and Soo, but more than that. They are forever friends which means that they can kiss each other forever and…” she stopped again, the cogs of her mind turning with such force that her thoughts were almost visible in her gentle eyes.

Baekhyun smiled softly. He kissed his daughter softly on the top of her head, seemingly breathing a little easier. Chanyeol still felt as though he shouldn’t be there. He really hoped Baekhyun would explain himself before his chest exploded.

He looked at Chanyeol with those beautiful loving eyes of his and Chanyeol’s fears all seemed to melt away, “that’s right,” he said without breaking eye contact with the human man, “Chanyeol is daddy’s special person.”

Chanyeol’s heart sped up at this. It was careless and selfish for the two of them to allow themselves to fall like this, like birds falling from an incomprehensible height; they were free falling into love, they may never fly, they knew they may fall and hit the ground, but they were desperate to see what the world looked like when they hit the bottom. Baekhyun’s actions that morning clarified in his mind that leaving – whenever that time may come – would be impossible.

“Will he be here forever?” Rhoslyn asked the question on everyone’s minds. Only the innocence of youth gave her the confidence to ask.

“Well, that is something we don’t know yet. All that matters is that he is here now and I want you to understand that, just because I have a special person in my life, that doesn’t make you any less precious to me. You will always be my number one person. Okay?”

Rhoslyn looked up at Chanyeol, properly searching his eyes for the first time, evaluating him, debating whether he was a person she should trust. After what felt like a lifetime, she slowly nodded her head.

“Okay, daddy. If he is special to you then I will not be worried about it at all.”

Baekhyun pulled her in as tightly as he could then snuggled her with all of his might, love gushing out of him as he rocked her backwards and forwards.

“Thank you, baby. That means the whole entire world to daddy. But, remember, we still get to have special time and Chanyeol doesn’t mind leaving the room if you want to tell me about your dream in secret,” he locked eyes with the other man, “right, Yeol?”

“Oh! Right! Definitely.” Of course he didn’t mind. That much, if nothing else, he respected and understood.

“No, it is okay. The tall man might be able to help, actually.”

Both men laughed from the relief.

“And why is that?” Chanyeol asked, feeling braver now that the strong-minded girl had given her blessing.

“Because in my dream, there was a lot of giants trying to steal my cookies and my colouring books which I really, really love a lot. Do all giants actually steal things from little children?”

Chanyeol held back the grin fighting its way onto his face while Baekhyun let out a massive snort, “well, Yeol. Do they? You would surely know!”

“Well, you’d think I’d know,” he had relaxed into himself a bit more and subconsciously moved closer to the father and daughter to whisper, “this is a secret, okay?”

Rhoslyn nodded aggressively.

“Most giants actually aren’t mean to little children.” The small girl gasped in surprise. “I know! It is a huge secret because giants want to seem scary but they are actually scared of small children because they have happy thoughts and lovely dreams which make a giant’s job really hard.”

Baekhyun stared at Chanyeol in awe, smiling all the way up to his sparkling eyes. Chanyeol hoped the fairy was thinking he had made the right decision to allow Chanyeol to stay.

“Actually,” the human continued, “Giants mostly scare grown-ups because they forget to have nice dreams and really happy thoughts. That is why it is important to always have a happy heart. Even when you are an adult. Or just really old like your daddy.”

The father in question yelled out in mock horror and smacked Chanyeol’s arm. He couldn’t hide his joyful laughter. Nor could Rhoslyn who was absolutely delighted.

“Hey, baby,” Rhoslyn, still laughing turned to face her dad, “go and grab the hoodie strings from the door handle, would you?”

The little girl obliged and turned to walk away while Baekhyun moved to sit in front of Chanyeol, their crossed legs touching at the knees.

“You would know all about having a happy heart, wouldn’t you, Yeol?” He smirked cheekily before leaning in, Chanyeol following suit.

When their lips met, the electricity flew right through Chanyeol and stopped in his heart, making it throb deeply, sending sparks through his chest, his neck, to the tips of his fingers and to the tips of his toes. He searched for Baekhyun’s hands taking them in his own, wanting to keep the fairy as close as possible as they kissed softly with such care and adoration.

They broke away when they heard Rhoslyn returning towards them but their cherry-red cheeks did not fade, nor did their smiles.

“Here you go, daddy,” she handed him the thick black strings before sitting to form a circle with the two men, “what is this for?”

“Well, you see, my mommy taught me a special spell when I was your age which keeps giants away and I want to share it with you. Turn around.”

She did just that and allowed her father to begin to style her hair into two small buns at the base of her head. He started to recite a spell.

“Oh, fairy of the realm. Shine your light upon me. Don’t let the giant steal my dreams, help me keep my heart clean. Make my days happy, make my dreams safe, shine your light upon me.”

He tied the strings around the small buns before waving his hands with a flourish, causing a flurry of golden specks to dot over Rhoslyn’s locks.

“There you go. Now you have nothing to worry about.”

“Thank you, daddy!” With a spring in her step, Rhoslyn leapt up and made her way out of the door.

“Wow,” Chanyeol marvelled, “there really is a spell for everything.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun said with a shrug, “just not for keeping away giants…” He winked.

“What?”

“I made it up. Well, my mom made it up,” he laughed at Chanyeol’s confusion, “a little white lie to keep a child happy never hurt anyone. Lighten up, babe!”

He leaned in to kiss Chanyeol again once more and his warmth convinced Chanyeol that the fairy could do and say pretty much anything and the people around him would feel safe. Perhaps that was his most magical ability, Chanyeol thought.

 

Kyungsoo made his way downstairs around the same time as Baekhyun and Chanyeol did so, already dressed in a smart button-up shirt, navy-blue cardigan, and grey tartan trousers, presumably ready for the working day. He had even taken the time to style his hair very elegantly. Only a fool wouldn’t take note of his handsomeness.

“Baekhyun, where are my work shoes, please?” Was his morning greeting. He didn’t seem the type to offer pleasantries but his affection was an immovable force. Chanyeol supposed that, when your nature was so solidly pure, one didn’t need to continuously assert it.

“Well, well, well. There is a shock. Someone in this house didn’t put something back where it belongs. I suppose, for a change, I will have to look for them.” Baekhyun was splayed across the sofa, head resting in Chanyeol’s lap, still in his pyjama top and shorts, despite the fact that he was supposed to open up the shop in half an hour. He stood up with a disgruntled groan before he flittered out of the door, not before placing a soft ‘good morning’ peck on Kyungsoo’s cheek.

The fairy didn’t notice the way Kyungsoo’s face displayed a sad smile, nor the way his body froze or his cheeks heated up, glowing for the world to see, betraying his secret affection. Chanyeol couldn’t help but notice. Nor could he help feeling guilty.

“So, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo spoke up, oblivious (or, not, as was most likely the case) to Chanyeol’s inner turmoil. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers, stretching his head backwards, eyes closed. He was probably trying to keep himself calm and level-headed but Chanyeol knew that Baekhyun’s presence made that impossible, “I hear you and his Highness are officially an item.”  
  


There was no hint of bitterness in his voice but that didn’t make Chanyeol feel any less sorry for Kyungsoo. It was so glaringly obvious that he still had feelings for Baekhyun and, while it wasn’t Chanyeol’s fault that their marriage ended, he still felt as though he was stepping all over Kyungsoo’s toes.

“No need to feel ashamed though, Chanyeol,” he continued, “no judgement from this end. Rhoslyn says she is pleased that her daddy finally got a girlfriend.” He snorted, as though he couldn’t quite get a full laugh out. The thought saddened Chanyeol.

“I see,” Chanyeol also chuckled nervously, “it seems she is a bit confused.”

“Yes, it does seem that way,” Kyungsoo walked over to sit next to Chanyeol on the settee, “I suppose it is a whole new concept to her. She’ll come around.”

Chanyeol nodded, kicking himself for being an idiot.  _Use your words!_ He mentally scolded himself. “Yeah.” He chose instead.

They sat in a painfully uncomfortable silence for a few moments, neither of them really sure what to say to the other. Until a thought popped into Chanyeol’s mind.

“I’m not ashamed, you know?”

“Hmm?” Kyungsoo seemed confused.

“You said before. You told me not to feel ashamed. I’m not ashamed.”

“Oh. That’s good. Really. You just didn’t seem that sure before now, that’s all.”

“I wasn’t sure,” Chanyeol admitted, “but Baekhyun is making it okay.”

Kyungsoo merely nodded. Was he irritated? Did he secretly want Chanyeol to feel so ashamed that he ended it with the fairy man? Did Kyungsoo know something that Chanyeol didn’t? Well, of course he did, but was it something bad? His mind was starting to spin out of control.

“Can I give you a piece of advice, Chanyeol?” The soothsayer sounded tentative and unsure. The other man just nodded.

“I know how it feels to fall for Baekhyun. The guy is a whirlwind,” the affection poured out of him in his voice, “falling for him is so easy. He is a beautiful human inside and out. But he isn’t indestructible.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Kyungsoo smiled once again, “I am trying to ask you not to hold him on some kind of pedestal, Chanyeol. I wouldn’t blame you; he does practically ooze perfection, doesn’t he? But he isn’t perfect and you shouldn’t expect him to be. He will break under the pressure. Believe me.”

Chanyeol couldn’t help but feel as though Kyungsoo was speaking from experience. He also became glaringly aware that this was exactly what he had been doing ever since he met Baekhyun. He had allowed himself to reach a point at which he willingly relied on Baekhyun for his own happiness. He had selfishly never even considered that the fairy would suffer from the emotional burden.

“I can tell you are panicking,” Kyungsoo admitted, “I didn’t want to make you panic. I just know Baekhyun too well and he will give you his all without even considering it. I don’t want him to do that. Especially not if you’re just going to leave him.”

That stung and his voice was definitely bitter this time which shocked Chanyeol to his core.

“I won’t leave him,” Chanyeol tried to defend himself. He really didn’t want to leave Baekhyun and he was pretty sure he would be able to go home very soon, if not right then but it just didn’t feel right to do so. He didn’t have a clue what to do. Kyungsoo surely knew that?

“You’re probably right,” Kyungsoo’s tone had softened again, “I shouldn’t have said that and I know you are good for him. I just- ,” he sniffled and turned his head to hide his face but Chanyeol was almost certain that he was crying.

Chanyeol hesitated briefly before moving to pull Kyungsoo into a hug, “I am so, so sorry, Kyungsoo.” He meant it. He didn’t want to hurt the other man’s feelings but, judging by the way his body began to quake violently, he knew he already had.

Kyungsoo silently sobbed. He most likely didn’t mean to do so but he had years’ worth of pent-up emotions and he had finally been given an excuse to let them out.

“Please, please take care of him, Chanyeol. I love him so dearly and I will kill you if you hurt him.”

His words were laced with a venom that brewed terror in Chanyeol but his soft voice revealed that he wasn’t being serious. Regardless, Chanyeol took note.

“I won’t hurt him, Kyungsoo. I care about him, too. You just have to trust me.”

Chanyeol could tell that the other man did. He didn’t know why. Had Kyungsoo seen far enough into the future to see that Chanyeol was going to do right by the fairy? He had no doubt that future him wouldn’t hurt Baekhyun on purpose. The idea that only Kyungsoo or a time machine could prove that to him for certain made him shiver slightly.

Kyungsoo sat back in his chair and dried his eyes with the back of his hands, taking deep breaths to recirculate the blood in his face and remove the red blotches.

“You know, it is silly really, but I did my hair for him this morning,” the laugh he let out wasn’t genuine, “it was worth a try, right?”

“I’m sorry,” was all Chanyeol could say.

“Shut up,” was the response he got, along with a telling smirk.

The two of them would still get along just fine, Chanyeol had decided, there may just be a few bumps along the way.

“A pair of shoes for my favourite breadwinner!” Baekhyun’s loud, shrill voice was heard before the man waltzed into the room, holding a pair of black shoes in the air.

He was dressed by that point, clad in a pair of very short black shorts, a black satin shirt which was basically see-through, and a pair of red doc martens, the same red as the flowers on his tattoo. As usual, he looked ravishing.

“About time! I’m going to be late!”

“And who is to blame for that, please?”

Kyungsoo didn’t give him the pleasure of providing a response but he did attempt to catch Baekhyun around the ankles with his bare feet. He missed. Then he left, heading out for work.

“Have a good day, babes!” Baekhyun yelled as the other man had already left the back of the shop, “don’t ruin too many lives with your prophecies or whatever!”

Cruelly, Chanyeol wondered what Kyungsoo would say if he could see how beautiful Baekhyun had been just then. He quickly shook the thought out of his mind.

He sat on the sofa and watched as Baekhyun moved around the room organising coasters on the oak coffee table, gathering glasses and mugs to take away, and rearranging items on shelves that didn’t need to be any neater than they already were. He did this frantically for around 20 minutes until the room was so spotless that, to make it any tidier, he would have to start throwing stuff out.

At five minutes to nine, just before the shop had to open and Chanyeol would be left alone for the day, Baekhyun plonked himself down on the sofa.

“Hi.” Was all he said to Chanyeol before he pecked him on the lips. “How would you feel about helping me out in the shop today?” Another soft peck. Then Chanyeol gave him one back.

“I doubt I’d be of much use to you…”

“Well, true except I have quite a few clients coming in today and it might help me out if you were to man the till for a bit? Plleeeeasssse??”

He fluttered his eyelashes and pouted his lips. The way that Chanyeol dove to catch the pout with his own mouth gave Baekhyun the answer he wanted.

 

That was how Chanyeol found himself standing, bored out of his mind, behind the till at the front of the shop for the fifth hour running. Baekhyun had neglected to provide him with a chair because the fairy himself was too short to actually stand behind the till so Chanyeol had to endure the shooting pain emerging from his very tired feet. He still had three hours to go until closing.

He lent his elbows on the wooden desk in front of him, his head resting on his palms as he stared mindlessly towards the shop floor. It had, in fact, been a very busy day so far and Baekhyun had been kept on his toes by the constant stream of customers; he had already seen to three male witches requiring various items, as well as two young female witches who were in the market for a new cauldron which the fairy had retrieved from a small, dingy store cupboard, shielded from suspicious eyes by a barely-noticeable wooden panel door. The door blended in so well with the wooden panelling of the wall that even Chanyeol didn’t know it was there. It was even draped with silk cloth just as other walls in the shop were so only the keenest of eyes would detect it. Chanyeol couldn’t help but wonder what else was hidden within the walls of the shop.

The variety of magical paraphernalia that Chanyeol had come across during his stay at The Broken Vial had left him mystified and as he stood by and watched Baekhyun converse animatedly with other magical beings, who should only have existed in fairy tales, about this potion and that spell book, Chanyeol was left utterly mystified, a smile of awe displayed for all to see.

The fairy man didn’t fail to notice the endearing glances the human was sending his way and, when his clients’ attention fell elsewhere, he made a point of locking eyes with Chanyeol and when he did, the pain in the human’s feet vanished just for that moment and the banal hours spent clock-watching were all worth it.

As Baekhyun used a precious window of free time created by a short lapse in genuine business to restock the bookshelf stretching across the expanse of one of the walls. With expert precision, he organised the books whilst taking a short look inside one or two of them if they piqued his interest.

Chanyeol was about to ask him about the contents of a particularly unusual book, bound with a deep purple leather cover entwined with thin, golden rope along the spine, and an intricately designed pattern etched in part onto the edge of each page, producing the image of an archetypal fairy figure. His words were drowned out as soon as they entered the air with the sound of the shop door opening knocking into the silver bells causing them to ring out.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol both moved their eyes to meet a group of four young women who were whispering to one another as they cautiously shuffled into the shop, none of them seeming willing to be the first one to enter.

 _Tourists,_ Chanyeol presumed as he stood up straight and wore his most polite shop-keeper face.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted cheerfully. The women didn’t offer him a response and instead shot him a mere look before giggling and splitting off to inspect the menagerie of oddities on display. He tried not to feel put out by the dismissiveness.

Two of the women began sifting through a barrel of assorted crystals which Baekhyun had filled to the brim the previous week. Chanyeol had sat and watched him from the kitchen table as he scattered hundreds of the things across the kitchen surface, organising them by price.

“I hate these bloody things,” he muttered to himself, “it isn’t like they bloody  _do_ anything. They just look pretty but they are all the rage these days! To be a millennial without a crystal collection is to be socially insignificant. Bring back the days when I paid for my heating purely from the sale of mood rings. Far less effort.”

Chanyeol yawned as the monotony of the fairy’s actions sent him drifting off to sleep and interjected, “why do you sell them then.”

Baekhyun didn’t look up from what he was doing but instead opened one of the cabinets to reveal shelves filled to bursting point with food and spices. The gesture he waved in front of the selection gave Chanyeol the answer he needed.

The other two women weren’t looking at anything in particular. They hovered around by the bookshelf but didn’t look at a single book. Instead, they stood rooted to their spot, whispering and not-so-discreetly pointing at Baekhyun. He either didn’t notice or he didn’t care because he simply carried on with his work, ripping apart a cardboard box and moving to stand up.

“Can I help you, two ladies?” He said as he moved to his feet in one swift motion with the ease of a young teenager – or of a never-ageing immortal being, at least.

There was more giggling before one of the women spoke – a brunette with a shaved head, very dark purple lipstick drawn too widely on her pale face, and a very loud outfit; her bold choice of a black cape with gigantic goth boots made a statement even Baekhyun wouldn’t attempt to pull off.

“Yes, actually,” she began, hands held confidently on her hips. The other women all turned to look her way but Baekhyun seemed unbothered as he began to tear the box into smaller pieces, “we are interested in starting witchcraft.”

The fairy raised an amused eyebrow, “is that so, ladies?” They all nodded. He just shrugged, “Interesting…and why would that be then?”

They all stood in silence before another girl, hands filled with crystals spoke up. She was much more subtly dressed in flared jeans and a black crop top. Not very witch-like if there was even such a thing as witch couture.

“We have someone we need to curse,” she sounded so confident in her answer but her friend, dressed in an identical outfit hissed at her to shut up. Apparently, that wasn’t the agreed answer.

“Girls, girls, girls,” Baekhyun tutted as he walked to stand next to Chanyeol behind the till, sifting through a pile of papers etched with numbers and product serial numbers, “you can’t just come in here asking to curse people. What do you expect me to do? Fabricate a voodoo doll out of thin air or something? You don’t seriously believe in all that nonsense, do you?”

He scoffed at them which Chanyeol thought was rather odd. Of course it wasn’t all nonsense. Why would Baekhyun even attempt to lie to people who already knew the secrets the shop was hiding. An actual witch lived within the shop walls; who was the fairy trying to kid?

The girls were at a loss once again, seemingly digging through the air for a response. The fourth girl, who was seemingly older than the rest (either that or her black sweater, black slacks ensemble aged her unfairly) offered her own thoughts.

“What is this shop here for then if it is all just nonsense?” She probably thought she had him caught, looking very smug as she folded her arms across her chest.

Baekhyun just looked at her like she had grown a second head and simply said, “it’s just a gimmick, love.”

She huffed, clearly not accepting that as an answer. The goth girl was having none of it either.

“Look, mister,” she spat, aggressively, the others looking horrified as she did, “we are here on the request of someone else.”

Chanyeol felt Baekhyun freeze up as the arm that was pressed lightly up against Chanyeol’s own stiffened.

“Who would that be then?” Only Chanyeol would have noticed the way his voice quivered and the way his body began to tremble.

“Ver-.”

“No one!” The goth girl cut off one of the girls over by the crystals but Chanyeol’s alarm bells were ringing. Had Veronica been giving away Baekhyun’s address? Who was even asking for it in the first place?

The sweater girl continued, “Exactly. That is none of your concern.”

A chorus of ‘yeah’ and ‘that’s right’ came from the other women. Chanyeol deduced that they were probably a little bit dense. Especially one of the girls messing with the crystals who had become distracted and held one of them up to her ears, assessing whether it matched her shoes. It didn’t.

“If you are in my shop, then I am afraid it is of my concern.” Baekhyun was trying very hard to stay calm but, when Chanyeol moved to take his hand in his own, he noticed that it had become icy cold from worry.

“Whatever,” the goth girl rolled her eyes, “are you Baekhyun, anyway?”

She came right out with it. She probably didn’t realise that those words felt like knives as the panic seared through both Chanyeol’s and Baekhyun’s chests. Chanyeol felt his own breath become rapid and shallow. Who the hell were these women?

“That’s none of your business,” Baekhyun spat.

“This must be the boyfriend, no?” The sweater girl asked as she began to move forward at a slow but nonetheless threatening pace. An evil smirk spread across her lips, “he is a handsome one. She was right.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“Who the fuck is ‘she’?” Baekhyun was losing his calm now and Chanyeol squeezed his hand in a desperate attempt to stop him doing anything stupid.

“Like I SAID! Do you not listen?” The goth girl’s voice throbbed in Chanyeol’s skull, “That is NOT your concern.”

Baekhyun looked like he was about to explode. Chanyeol could see the faint outline of his veins begin to deepen as anger and fear forced him to relinquish control of his human form. The human man began to rub frantic circles on the back of Baekhyun’s hand both to try to calm him down but also to alert him to the fact that his form was beginning to change.

“I think you’ll find it is my concern,” the fairy breathed out, his voice getting trapped in his throat as his breath struggled to decide whether to move in or out of his trembling body.

This threw the women off once again (whoever they were, Chanyeol had decided they were utterly spineless, clearly the puppets of the woman who had sent them there in the first place.) Chanyeol began to think that he and Baekhyun had won whatever bizarre battle of words they had found themselves in and felt the fairy begin to breathe a little easier before the quietest girl, one who had mostly stood and watched on as the others fought, seemingly innocuous as she fiddled with a tight top bun on the top of her head, said something that made Baekhyun lose his footing.

“Where is your daughter? Rhoslyn, is it?” She spoke as though she were asking for the time or when the next bus would arrive but her words shot an ice-cold fear through Baekhyun’s body, fabricating a terribly off-putting energy within the now-silent room.

Chanyeol couldn’t think straight and he dreaded to think about how Baekhyun was feeling. It seemed at first that the fairy hadn’t heard her but, after a few agonising seconds of silence, his knees buckled underneath him and, were it not for Chanyeol’s strong arm holding him up by the waist, he would surely have fallen.

“W-Wh-what did…how do you- who are…” he stammered violently, very obviously feeling incredibly short of breath. Chanyeol knew that the terror that seared through his body and sent his head into an unusable cloud of black fog, making his vision tunnel was felt tenfold by Baekhyun; his worst nightmare was coming true. They – whoever ‘they’ may be – had found Rhoslyn. His daughter. The child he sacrificed his entire livelihood to keep alive.

“Get out.” He quietly spat, finally managing to utter a full word, albeit a weak, quiet one.

The goth girl raised a sly eyebrow and scoffed, “make us.”

“Just. Leave.” The fairy spat again.

“And how are you going to make us d-.”

“He said,” Chanyeol began, anger coursing through his mind like never before, “Get. Out.”

“No.”

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS SHOP OR SO HELP ME GOD I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET THIS!!”

Chanyeol’s bellowing voice reached decibels he had never thought possible and vibrated the air so strongly that a selection of glass jars on the shelves began to rattle quietly. He shocked even himself given that he was normally incredibly reserved but the thought of someone he had come to care about so dearly being in danger brought a monster out in him.

It shocked the women too who bobbed their mouths open and closed as though their minds had departed them before they all began to shuffle out of the shop. Leaving behind them a young fairy whose world had just gone up in flames.  _Just as I thought,_ Chanyeol managed to think to himself as the adrenaline began to clear his hazy mind,  _no backbone._

“Chan-Chanyeol,” Baekhyun sounded like he was about to burst into tears, “what just happened? Oh my God! Rhoslyn! My baby! Yeol, help us. Please, please.”

He started to sob violently then and all Chanyeol could do was pull him into his body and shield him with his arms, whispering confirmations in his ear that he was safe, Rhoslyn was safe, and that no one would be able to harm them as long as he was there.

Though Baekhyun felt so small in Chanyeol’s large arms, the human man knew he had a magical ability which made him stronger and more powerful than any mortal man alive. This made Chanyeol feel ultimately powerless; those girls were nobodies, they were human women incapable of matching the strength of a fairy but what if the next group of people to invade the shop weren’t human? Who sent them in the first place? Would they be stronger? Who would protect Baekhyun then?

Chanyeol would be kidding himself if he believed that he could protect Baekhyun when the fairy couldn’t protect himself. That didn’t stop him trying to reassure Baekhyun with all of his might.

“Don’t worry, my love. I will keep you safe. I promise.”

“How?!” Baekhyun wailed with such pain, soaking Chanyeol’s shirt with his streaming tears, “I know you mean well, Yeol, but HOW!?”

Chanyeol hoped as he kissed the top of Baekhyun’s head, that he never – ever – had to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh dear <3 <3 Much - hopefully shockingly unpredictable - drama will ensue ;-) (hopefully in less than a week this time...stranger things have happened)


	14. Part Three - With the Shackles of Life, You Can't Fly Away

“Go and find Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun was sat in the living room, staring into space as Chanyeol knelt on the floor at his feet, desperately trying to help him to calm down. Rhoslyn had been sent to her room so as not to expose her to the tense atmosphere; to cause her to worry would only exacerbate the situation. “He'll be in Yixing's shop, down the main road. You take the last right turn. The shop is in a massive clearing.” He shut his eyes, racking his brain to locate the shop in his mind, “The shop is hidden away from the rest but you can't miss it.”

“What's the shop called, Baek?” Chanyeol asked, softly. He was making a concerted effort to stay calm. He knew that Baekhyun needed him to be calm.  

“Lilac moons...please find him, Yeol. Please.” Baekhyun’s fragility was scaring Chanyeol. He was starting to think that Kyungsoo was right about the fairy; he had his cracks and weaknesses, too, and was not to be overestimated. In fearing so greatly for his daughter’s safety, he had been reduced to a mere shell of himself.

“Of course, babe,” he grabbed the sides of Baekhyun’s face and stared into Baekhyun’s bloodshot, unfocused eyes with sincerity, “I will be as quick as I can. You stay here and watch Rhosyln, okay?”

Baekhyun simply nodded, not appearing to be processing Chanyeol's words. The human placed a firm kiss on his cheek before he left. The fairy barely reacted and instead remained as still as a doll. A doll crafted from the frailest porcelain which would shatter at the slightest touch. The drastic change in character was disturbing, to say the least.

Chanyeol made his way out of the shop and onto the courtyard, for the first time in weeks, at the briskest pace he could manage without sprinting out of the door. It was surprisingly cold outside, the floor damp from recent rainfall, the smell of wet concrete filling Chanyeol's nose. The air was moist and bitter as it hung stale. As he rushed onto the street, his feet were guided along by wet leaves scattered on the ground underneath his feet. Their colours blurred beneath his feet as he ran.

It was only late afternoon by that point so many of the shops were still open, tourists milling around in every corner of the street despite the miserable weather. They were too engrossed to notice the young man whipping his head around frantically, weaving in and out of the crowds, struggling to remember the directions he had been given.

After a few minutes of ceaseless running which left him with stitch searing through his right side and with stagnant rainwater splashed up his trouser legs, Chanyeol came upon the turning he needed.

The street was a dark and narrow one with cobbled ground and potted plants scattered along its length. He rushed down the street, barely able to see as his eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light. The odd resident peered out from their homes, each more peculiar-looking than the last, unaccustomed to seeing someone causing such a commotion in their quiet neighbourhood.

After a sharp bend in the road, he came to a small grassy clearing. He was surprised to approach a quaint white-painted cottage complete with ivy crawling up the walls and a thatched roof. The front garden could easily have been mistaken for an orchard with the number of autumnal trees shielding the abode from prying eyes.

 _Lilac Moons_ , the sign above the oak door read. It was painted in elegant calligraphy which Chanyeol struggled to read with his slightly rough English literacy yet he was certain he was in the right place.

Without any caution, he sped across the lawn (very nearly slipping on a particularly sodden patch of grass) and rapped his hand against the solid door, so forcefully that his knuckles stung, the pain only worsened by the cold. He tried to peer through the round stained-glass window for any sign of life but to no avail. The glass was stained with a royal purple tint entirely obscuring any movement inside.  He was about to knock again before a blood-curdling screech ripped through the still air and forced his hairs to shoot up on end.

Before he could even react, he felt his body being slammed to the ground with an aggressive thud. Apart from the sound of his head pummelling against the wet ground, all he could make out of his attacker was a searing cry deep from their gut. The combination of the horrific noise and the damp ground on his now-sodden clothes made it hard for him to focus. Whatever it was that had attacked him was now thrashing around wildly, taking aimless sweeps at his face, causing him to wince so much that he couldn’t even open his eyes.

He tried desperately to catch his breath. He thrashed his body about on the grass, slipping and sliding as the body above him weighed down on his chest. The more he thrashed, the more fatigued his muscles became, and the further he was pushed into the earth.

He shot open his eyes. Black fur blurred in front of his field of vision. He thrashed some more. His chest was becoming tighter. Tighter. His head pounded from the lack of oxygen. His heart palpitating wildly.

_WHAT THE HELL!?!_

Panic. He felt panic in his stomach. He felt it sear at his temples. Every inch of him stung with fear. His attacker was far too strong to compete with. He couldn’t even get the leverage to roll them off of him.  What kind of monster was this? Whatever it was had to be smaller than him because the weight pressing on his body stopped at the waist. Yet he was still no match.

He squinted his eyes and held his head as still as humanly possible. He came to focus on a pair of beady red eyes.

_RED EYES?!_

The scream he let out would have been comical had he not felt as though death were inches away.

_I’m going to die. I only had to walk half a mile but I am going to die here. I don’t want to die. Baekhyun needs me. I need Baekhyun. Baekyhun!! Oh my God, Baek…_

“BAEK! BAEK!! SOMEONE HELP!!! BAEKHYUN NEEDS HELP!!,” he screamed so harshly that his throat went raw.

All he could see was black fur, black fog in his distressed mind, black spots in his eyes from lack of oxygen to his brain.

“HELP!!!” He gave one last attempt before he could yell no more.

Then he heard footsteps vibrating the earth he felt his body becoming a part of.

“What the hell is going on out here?”

A voice!

Someone came!

There was hop for him yet…

“YES! I AM HERE! HELP ME PLEASE I BEG YOU!”

Chanyeol wondered if he had met his guardian angel at the gates of heaven. He had never believed in heaven. He hoped the lord would take pity on him.

_What a way to go._

A final surge of adrenaline reached his numbing arms and he gave the limbs on his aching chest a last-ditch push. The weight was immediately lifted from his chest, breath flooding into his burning lungs, consciousness returning to him gradually.

He opened his eyes slowly, the harsh light above him causing him to squint. All he could see was white. Was he in the clouds now? Maybe he really was dead.

Then a tall figure moved into his field of vision, initially entirely back and seemingly in double but it soon merged into a single, sharp image.

Chanyeol blinked some more to finally focus on…Yixing.

“Yixing! You came! Wait…you are an angel?” _Wow, this place is full of surprises_. Chanyeol couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Yixing was stood peering down at him, looking utterly flabbergasted. He was holding something in his arms. An animal of some description. It was fidgeting around wildly as Yixing wrestled to keep it still, bearing sharp teeth at Chanyeol.

It was a black cat.

“Ash!” The young apothecarist snapped, “Would you stop being such a pain in my ass! Look what you’ve done to this poor man!” He turned his gaze to look at Chanyeol apologetically, “you’ve completely traumatised him.”

He held a firm hand out to Chanyeol and gave him an apologetic smile. Reluctant at first, Chanyeol remained paralysed in his spot. So he wasn’t dead? He spun his head around to take a good look at his surroundings when it dawned on him that he hadn’t actually been murdered in cold blood.

Just robbed of his dignity, instead.

He was on the grass, his backside soaking wet, and had been left prostrate on the floor, aching and ashamed. His whole body cringed in embarrassment as he took note of the evening sky; thick with murky, grey clouds as is typical for England.

Reluctantly taking the outstretched hand, he was forced to his feet by Yixing.

“I’m so sorry about this, Chanyeol,” Yixing at least had the decency to sound like he meant it, “she is a complete menace.”

The cat hissed at him as though it had understood the man’s words. Chanyeol was not an expert on animals, but he thought this feline, in particular, needed some disciplinary training.

He was too stunned to actually say that out loud. “What just happened? What kind of _monster_ is that cat? Yixing, I-I don’t understand.” The final remnants of fear stuttered out of him with his words.

Yixing sighed before releasing the feral beast from his arms. The cat leapt downwards but, before its back legs so much as hit the ground, its entire body began to contort itself and morph from one sub-human form to another. The transformation was frightfully grotesque, complete with the popping, crunching sounds of elongating bones and joints becoming enlarged. The figures neck grew freakishly long and it stretched backwards, creating more awful popping sounds before a fully-formed head fell into place.

Then, as though the cat had never even existed, in its place stood a human teenager. A young woman.

She looked like a doll, standing there with jet black hair flowing beyond her waist, wearing a gorgeous black gown which floated around her shoeless feet.

Chanyeol didn’t have time for niceties upon meeting this young woman, however.

 “What the fuck was that?!” His body backed itself away and his feet fell over one another in their haste to get the hell away from… _that thing._

The girl just rolled her eyes at him, admiring her blood red fingernails, completely bored. As though she hadn’t just done something that should go against every law of science, nature and the fabric of the universe itself.

“In home security system.” She shrugged, more interested in an apparent overhanging nail than anything else.

“Security…what!? I could have died!!”

To Chanyeol’s utter distaste both the man and young woman just laughed at him. Apparently, even Yixing was feeling rather nonplussed. Nonchalant, even.

“To be fair, Chanyeol. She wouldn’t have killed you. The punishment I’d give her wouldn’t be worth the bother. The decade-long TV ban would probably be the end of her for a start off.”

The girl nodded. Yixing gestured towards her with his hand. Almost as if to say, s _ee, told you so._ Chanyeol glared. If looks could kill…

“So, my life is comparable to a television ban!? Charming. Absolutely charming!” He gesticulated wildly with his arms, flailing them about. Had literally everyone else gone mad, or had he? He was seriously starting to wonder.

Yixing stepped over to Chanyeol and placed an arm around his shoulders using the other hand to rub up and down the young man’s arm comfortingly. Also trapping him in an iron grip to subdue his minor meltdown. The neighbourhood was a quiet one and Chanyeol’s cries would have been heard the town over.

“Ash, why don’t you head back inside and ask your father to pop the kettle on,” he said with too much calmness for someone who had just witnessed a brutal attack, “and tell Kyungsoo that his very handsome houseguest is here.” He winked. _He winked!_

The teenage girl rolled her eyes and skulked off into the house.

Chanyeol felt he could finally breathe again. 

“Sorry about that, Chanyeol. Teenagers, hey?” He seemed like he expected an answer.

“Erm…can't say I know what you mean, no…”

“Hmm,” Yixing looked pensive, “I do suppose most people’s daughters aren’t feline shape-shifters with an attitude problem but – me and Jun – we manage her antics just fine.”

Chanyeol was willing to bet that Yixing - and whoever _Jun_ was - did not manage fine at all. But he had only met the other man once, not even being sufficiently acquainted with him to know that he had a daughter in the first place, so he kept his mouth firmly shut. 

“Anyway,” Yixing let go of Chanyeol and beckoned him into the house, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Pleasure was not the word Chanyeol would use.

Chanyeol followed him into the house and was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of cooked spices and a hint of mulled wine. That and the dim orange lighting in the small cottage made it feel very cosy. He hated to be the person to shatter the ambience.

“Oh!” Yixing stopped Chanyeol halfway down the hall, “could you kick your shoes off by any chance? New carpets…”

In the panic, Chanyeol hadn’t even thought to ask and rushed to kick off his wet, muddy trainers.

“Thanks. Come on through.”

Chanyeol followed him right to the end of the hallway, past a dining room, various closed doors, and a winding staircase adorned with floral carpets. Yixing wittered on about the cost of redecorating his home and the difficulty of keeping it pristine. Chanyeol was so entranced by the house-slash-store’s décor that he wasn’t even listening. At the end of the hall was a vintage kitchen, heated to boiling point by a traditional cream painted AGA.

In the kitchen stood Kyungsoo, daisy lying at his feet. At the foot of the AGA, stirring a bubbling pot of food stood a man Chanyeol had never seen before.

He was relatively young, maybe a few years older than Baekhyun - or, at least the age Baekhyun _pretended_ to be – and very muscular, his tight black t-shirt revealing heavily tattooed arms and leaving very little to the imagination. He looked up from the worktop where he was cooking and stared at Chanyeol with cold eyes.

Yixing walked up behind the stoic man and wrapped his arms around his waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. The man smiled.

“This, Chanyeol, is Junmyeon. My husband- slash – housemaid – slash – baby daddy.”

Junmyeon rolled his eyes teasingly, and craned his neck to peck Yixing on the mouth.

“H-hello,” Chanyeol stuttered.

“Junmyeon, this is Chanyeol.”

The man in question turned around with a blank expression, studying Chanyeol closely for a few seconds. He scanned every inch of his body, even inspecting his sodden feet. Then his face broke out into a friendly grin. Chanyeol immediately released all of the tension in his body.

“Nice to meet you, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol politely nodded his head.

“Yeol?” Kyungsoo piped up with curiosity in his words, “what are you doing here? I thought you were helping Baek out in the shop…”

All of the heads in the room were pulled towards him.

“Well…that’s what I wanted to talk to you about…we have a bit of a problem…a big problem.”

 

After twenty minutes of manically rushing around Yixing’s home, locking up the shop and dragging a reluctant Ash out of the door, the motley crew found themselves in Baekhyun’s living room.

The fairy looked terribly pale, obviously scared out of his wits. He was very jittery; barely able to sit still. It wasn’t until Chanyeol sat beside him and placed a gentle hand on his knees that the fairy’s legs stopped bobbing up and down.

“Hey, flower,” Yixing said, his soothing tone working magic on the nervous energy in the room, “what a pickle you’ve got yourself in, hey?”

Baekhyun forced a sad smile, “hey, Xing. It does seem we are in a spot of bother.”

“No worries, Baek!” Junmyeon burst into the room, full of energy with no evidence of his previously quiet aura remaining. “We’re all here to keep an eye on you now! Some of us know how to keep you safe if you know what I mean.”

He was walking across the room towards the others, his hand reaching to draw something from above his belt line but he was stopped in his tracks when Kyungsoo ran past him, knocking into his arm in the process. The soothsayer clutched at Baekhyun with grabby hands, desperate to feel if he was okay.

“Baek! Oh my God. You are alright! Where is Rhoslyn? Is she okay?”

Baekhyun stopped his hands and clutched them in one of his own, using the other to brush Kyungsoo’s messy hair out of his eyes.

“She is _fine,_ Soo,” he assured him, “she is in her room.”

“I sent Ash up there to keep an eye on her,” Junmyeon cut in briefly.

“See, Soo. There are loads of people to watch over her. Please don’t fret, love.”

Kyungsoo took a deep breath and nodded. He allowed Yixing to guide him to occupy the seat beside Baekhyun not already taken up by Chanyeol. Baekhyun took his hand into his own, not forgetting to keep a hand on Chanyeol’s lap. The young man doubted that many people in their situation – ex-husband in the same room as the new boyfriend – would cope as well. Although he supposed, they had much bigger, incredibly unique fish to fry.

“So…Baek,” Yixing began after clearing his throat. He sat cross-legged on a multicoloured rag rug and began lifting bottles of strange herbs out of a brown leather satchel, “what do you reckon is going on here, hm?”

The apothecarist began pouring various mixtures into a small china mug and, with a wonderfully fragrant aroma filling the room, passed it to the fairy.

“For your nerves,” he explained. He was certainly right as well judging by the way every muscle in the fairy’s body relaxed and he leaned into Chanyeol’s side with a relieved sigh after just one sip.

“God, Xing,” he began, “I have no idea what’s happening. These women – whom I have never seen before – turn up, out of the blue. They know me, they know about _Chanyeol for goodness sake._ Worst of all, they know about Rhoslyn. No one – and I mean _no one_ – knows about Rhoslyn. No one but her…her parents…”

The relaxation was short-lived. His voice began to wobble with tears and his hands shook so aggressively that liquid dripped over the edge of his cup. Chanyeol took the mug away from him and grabbed his hands. He had to stop them from shaking. He had to stop Baekhyun from feeling so terrible.

“No.” Kyungsoo spat. “I know what you are insinuating. No. No way. That isn’t what this is,” Kyungsoo was shaking his head frantically, his voice growing pitchy with emotion.

Something snapped within Baekhyun then. His body tensed and his eyes pooled with black. Chanyeol could have sworn that his teeth sharpened into fangs but he didn’t have the chance to look properly. The fairy was furious.

“How do you know they don’t want her back!?” He shot up from his seat, pointing an aggressive finger at Kyungsoo. He growled, pacing menacingly towards the soothsayer, “she is their fucking daughter! Their flesh. Their blood. She has every right to go back to them. WHY WOULDN’T THEY COME HERE, SOO!? It isn’t like I am her pissing father anyway, is it? IS IT!? I am no one to her! No one! They are everything to her! If they came back here…well, I wouldn’t fucking blame them!” He spat venom in his words, his dark veins emerging on his pale flesh.

“BAEKHYUN!” Kyungsoo yelled so loudly that the other men in the room jolted, “Will you SHUT up! What if she hears you!? Stop acting like a fucking child! I knew her parents for YEARS in case you don’t remember. They are NOT coming to get her. Get a grip…”

“HOW CAN YOU BE SURE?!” The fairy grabbed onto Kyungsoo’s shoulders. With the way the other man flinched, any spectator would have thought Baekhyun had done so with great force. But Chanyeol could see the way the fairy’s digits rested gently on the other man, not applying unnecessary force despite his rage.

“For fucks sake, Baek,” Kyungsoo rested his face in his palms, “will you just listen to me for one in your god damn life! You know, her mother is trying to get pregnant again. She wants to move on. Live her life. She wants nothing to do with Rhoslyn anymore. Her father acts as though she already died. ‘Who’s Baekhyun?’ He’d say. ‘Is he a good friend? Is Rhoslyn his daughter? When they said they would leave with you, forget her and give her a chance to live, they fucking meant it.”

It was clear Kyungsoo’s word was final.

Baekhyun flopped his body back down on the sofa and sighed. He leaned into Chanyeol once more, shutting his eyes tightly, breathing in and out labouredly a first and then gradually calming down. The human man stroked his hair. Once again, he felt at a complete loss as to what to do. 

“With all due respect,” Yixing was being a diplomat it seemed, “shouting will help us very little. Even if we don’t know who these people are, they know about Rhoslyn. Therefore, they are a threat. Our only priority is keeping this house guarded.” He slapped his knees and stood up, with such athleticism that he didn’t even need to uncross his legs to do so. “I’m off to check on the wards, maybe add some of my own – ones to keep out anything that isn’t completely pure blooded, specifically. While I do that…kiss and makeup, you big babies.”

He left them in a room of unbearable silence.

“I’ll go and check on the girls,” Junmyeon mumbled before tailing after his partner. He was probably grateful for the excuse to bolt out of there. The others did not have such a luxury.

“Baek…”

“No, Soo. Don’t say anything. I can’t trust you not to piss me off again.”

“Ha! Likewise. Cheeky little shit…”

Baekhyun allowed a pained laugh to escape him before turning stoic once again.

“It’s just…I have waited for this day to come for 7 years I just never really allowed myself to think about what would happen when it did…”

It would be hard for any parent to imagine the pain of fighting every day of your child’s life to keep them alive, let alone when the thing to steal their life away could come in one of many forms. It was no wonder Baekhyun had begun to snap under the pressure. Seven years is a long time to care for someone so deeply, to love someone so unconditionally, and to live with the notion that they could be taken away from you at any second.

“You don’t know anything _will_ happen. Just because Rhoslyn _could_ be taken from the house, doesn’t mean she _will_ be. Just because Veronica wants her gone, doesn’t mean she will succeed.”

This rang some bells in Chanyeol’s mind and a light bulb exploded in his mind. _Veronica._ One of the girls had been about to mention Veronica!

“Babe!” Both men whipped their heads around, startled. It seemed they had forgotten that their company was also capable of speaking. Chanyeol repetitively tapped his boyfriend’s arm. “One of the girls mentioned her! They mentioned Veronica! She sent them to us!”

The fairy shook his head in incredulity, obviously confused. Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes, also perplexed.

“Don’t you remember?” A head shake was the response, “One of them said they had been sent by someone. By Veronica!”

The same lightbulb was sparked off in Baekhyun’s mind. Then in Kyungsoo’s.

“Chanyeol! You are right!”

“That BITCH!”

“So,” Chanyeol carried on, “does that make it better? Or worse?”

“Better?” Baekhyun turned to Kyungsoo for confirmation, “right?”

Kyungsoo shrugged swiftly, “I guess so. I mean it isn’t ideal and we should put the wards up anyway – in case she sends one of her warlock friends next time or something – but nothing we can’t handle.”

This realisation ended up leaving Chanyeol more confused than he had been before, “wait. I thought she didn’t want to hurt Rhoslyn. That is what you said, isn’t it, love?”

“Oh, Yeol,” Baekhyun looked like he pitied Chanyeol’s naivety, “that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t get someone else to do it for her…”

“Or, alternatively,” Kyungsoo aimed to offer a silver lining, “she is just trying to scare you. Maybe she hasn’t got much going on at the moment and wants to keep herself amused. After all, she always experiences a lull in demand for her services before the autumn festivals. She will be free to do whatever she wants until the equinox…”

Chanyeol wasn’t sure whether this offered him any comfort at all. They were still in danger, were they not? The only difference was that they knew who to fear. All he could do was hold onto Baekhyun tightly and hope that Kyungsoo was right.

 

 

All that was left for them to do once they were all together was to sit tight and hope for the best.

This silver lining didn’t mean tensions weren’t incredibly high, however. After Kyungsoo and Baekhyun’s explosive argument, they felt it was best to give each other some space to cool off. Kyungsoo spent the evening conversing quietly with Junmyeon, basking in the warmth let off from a wood fire Chanyeol had taken it upon himself to light.

His mother had once taught him, as she covered their home in dozens of lit candles one cold winter evening, about the Danish practice of Hygge. He didn’t understand it completely but one thing he did learn was that making your home as comfortable as possible made a difference and, as soon as the small sitting room was lit with a warm, orange hue, he felt much more at ease.

Baekhyun was awfully quiet, most likely overcome with exhaustion. He rested his head in Chanyeol’s lap, allowing him to run fingers through his matted hair, but he didn’t say a word. His eyes did not move from the flickering flames and the embers spurting out from the fire. The events of the day had taken root in his mind and the branches of fear were firmly staking their claim in him.

Yixing had been absent for a few hours, busying himself with strengthening the wards as he had promised. Sporadically, he would pop his head around the door with an update. He let an unresponsive Baekhyun know that the windows upstairs had all been sealed, he told Kyungsoo that he had monitored the static energy from the wards to ensure that Daisy would not be overly sensitive to the incessant whirring noise it created. He even reassured Chanyeol that the door to his allocated room was very heavily guarded; not that he planned on using it at all.

When Yixing entered the room for the final time, he announced that the wards he and Amber had collaboratively constructed would not – under any circumstances – allow any creature who was not a pure-blooded human to pass through. If anyone tried to break through the barrier they created, “they would know about it.” While very ominous, this meant that no one too strong for them to fend off could come and snatch Rhoslyn away, nor could they remove Baekhyun from her.

Everyone felt much safer at his admission and felt as though they could finally breathe.

Junmyeon rose to his feet with a huge sigh of relief and announced that he would be making a pot of tea. None of them had so much as had a glass of water for hours and they were starting to feel the effects now. Junmyeon made his way out of the door but not without stopping to pull Yixing into his embrace and kiss him deeply.

“You are a live saver, Xing,” he whispered so softly that Chanyeol had to read his lips. This compliment made Yixing blush deeply. He decided to assist his partner with the tea, maybe so he could steal some more kisses in private. Chanyeol had never been in a room filled with so much love before and the thought filled him to the brim with warmth.

“They seem nice,” he said to Baekhyun as he ran a finger cross an exposed cheek.

“Hmm.”

“Ash is a right one though,” he chuckled.

No response came. Baekhyun was fading away into sleep. Chanyeol’s eyebrows creased in worry.

“You know, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo called from across the room. He was poking at the fire with a metal rod to ignite some more wood, sparks flying towards his face. “Don’t worry about Baek. The drink Yixing gave him has just made him a bit spaced out.”

This made Chanyeol worry even more.

“Seriously. He will be fine. He needs it sometimes. That man is so bloody uptight, it does him a favour to chemically snap him out of it sometimes. Just let him rest for a little while.”

The thought was concerning for Chanyeol but, at the same time, he completely understood what Kyungsoo meant. Even in Chanyeol’s own life, there had been times where he wished someone would just take his anxiety, fears, and depression away from him. So that someone else could deal with it just for a little while. To lighten the load. Especially when he started to come to terms with the whole “gay thing”, he would have paid good money for a magic pill, for a magical drink to make his mind feel like his own again. Either that or a reset button.

He returned to running his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair, relishing in the feeling of his abnormally rapid heartbeat and his every breath.

“So,” Kyungsoo spoke up again, “what do you think of Junmyeon, then?”

“He is alright, I guess. Do you think he might have a bit of a…mood problem? He is a bit difficult to read…”

Kyungsoo cackled at him, causing Chanyeol to frown in confusion, “he is just unsure of you, Chanyeol. After all that you’ve seen go on around here, can you really blame him?”

He had a very good point.

“He is human, too. You know him?”

Chanyeol scoffed, “not all humans know each other, Kyungsoo.”

“He is also Korean.”

Chanyeol mocked surprise, “No way! With a name like Junmyeon, I never would have guessed! I still don’t know him. Korea is a big place.”

“Touché, mister,” he went back to jabbing at the dwindling fire, “it might be good for you, though, to have a human around here, I mean. Give you a break from us bunch of crazies, right Baek?”

Baekhyun just groaned and fidgeted around in his sleep, his shoulder jabbing into Chanyeol’s tummy as he did so.

Chanyeol cleared his throat. “What’s so special about Junmyeon, anyway? He seems nice enough to me. Normal even.”

“You didn’t think there was anything…different about him? Nothing at all.”

He cast his mind back to the first time he met Junmyeon. All that sprung to mind was the other man’s attitude when he first studied Chanyeol; he had eyes as cold as ice which melted almost as soon as they had appeared. After that, Junmyeon was nothing but gracious and polite. He seemed like a very upright man. A good partner. An attentive friend. A doting father.

Chanyeol shook his head, perplexed.

“You didn’t notice the tattoos?”

He had noticed the tattoos. How could he miss them? Junmyeon was plastered in them. They covered his forearms as abundantly as his skin itself, they crept above the neck of his t-shirt and spread upwards across the back of his own neck. It was difficult to make out what they were exactly but Chanyeol had definitely identified a few serpents, as well as some Chinese characters. Or were they Hanja? Chanyeol would have been none the wiser if they were; he never was one for ancient culture classes, much preferring plastering his school notebooks in Japanese characters as a result of his moderate anime obsession.

“I still don’t see how that makes him interesting,” he admitted, “you have a tattoo, Baekhyun has multiple tattoos on his arm, ankles, I even saw one on his lower back the other day. Tattoos aren’t anything special.”

“He has one on his back? He never used to have one on his back. There isn’t an inch of that man I haven’t seen, I would remember if…he…he…” Kyungsoo’s eyes widened as he realised that he had divulged far too much information. “What am I even saying? God, I can’t keep my mouth shut sometimes. Just ignore me. I must be out of my mind.” He chuckled anxiously.

“No, Kyungsoo. You aren’t out of your mind. You are his ex-husband.”

Kyungsoo flinched.

“Is that not a fact, Soo? It happened. There is no shame in it and I am not mad about it.” He gazed at the fairy in his lap. He had drifted off to dreamland and looked entirely peaceful for the first time since he had laid his head down there, “you are an important person in his life. I won’t take that away from you. Don’t pretend it didn’t happen for my benefit.”

“I – I…sorry.” Kyungsoo slumped back into his seat and rubbed his face harshly, “I really don’t want this to be awkward but you have to understand I...”

“I understand, Soo. Don’t worry.”

Kyungsoo smiled in his direction and Chanyeol felt the bridge between them begin to reassemble itself once again.

“You still haven’t told me what is so outrageous about a few tattoos.”

“Look at you! What a progressive Korean boy you are, Chanyeol! What would your _omma_ say if she could hear you!” Kyungsoo scolded him in mock outrage.

“Whatever! It isn’t like he is actually in a gang or anything. That is such a regressive way of thinking. What do you know about _ommas_ anyway?”

Kyungsoo gave him a sly smile, “what? You think I didn’t have one?”

 _Shit._ It dawned on Chanyeol then how insensitive he had just been. Kyungsoo did have one, just as he did. The only difference was that his was brutally murdered right before his eyes.

“I know what you are thinking so stop that. You are breaking the only house rule I gave you, by the way; absolutely _no_ pity.” Somehow, he found it within himself to laugh at Chanyeol’s awkwardness. “I am exaggerating slightly, though. I’ve never actually been to Korea. My mother’s family has lived there since records began but, after my mother fled persecution from the people in her village – something to do with mysterious deaths which they, naturally, blamed on the young psychic woman – she left all of that behind her. I am about as Korean culturally as English breakfast tea.”

“So how do you know about Korean gang culture then?”

“…from Junmyeon…” He looked slightly ashamed, as though he had been caught out.

“That is a random thing to bring up in casual conversation. Why did he tell you about that?”

Kyungsoo offered him the blankest stare he could possibly muster, “does absolutely everything have to be spoon fed to you?”

Chanyeol nodded ashamedly, “apparently so…please, indulge me.”

“He is a _geondal_ , Chanyeol…he was a member of an organised street gang. He is a wanted criminal…”

The cogs in his mind clicked and clicked as he tried to make sense of what Kyungsoo had said. When they finally fit together his thoughts raced at a mile a minute.

“A…a what?”

“Yep! He was on the run from his gang and the police when he met Yixing, actually. He was hiding in Russia, living like some hobo when Xing found him whilst gathering some of the bizarre shit he hoards.”

“O-oh. A _geondal_ …tattoos…criminal…are you…are you sure he is…safe?”

He had heard stories about men like Junmyeon from his friends at school. They were violent, powerful, dangerous. Of course, these were most likely just stories, dressed up for dramatic purposes. That didn’t mean he wanted to be around an actually wanted man.

“How judgmental of you!” Kyungsoo sounded somewhere between offended and sarcastic, “this family of lost souls doesn’t abandon anyone in the dust; not Rhoslyn, not you, and not Junmyeon. He is a good man. He just got mixed up with the wrong people, that’s all. I can assure you; he is more than safe.

Chanyeol didn’t have time to respond before Baekhyun began to stir. He groaned noisily and stretched his limbs outwards before croaking out, “of course he is safe, babe. We need him here if anything. Just don’t get on the wrong side of him, that’s all. Then you will see what a cut-throat killer really looks like.” Chanyeol gulped, involuntarily. It didn’t sound like Baekhyun was at all joking, “Besides, it’s always handy to have a trained assassin around at times like this. Don’t you think?”

Chanyeol, frankly, couldn’t agree more.

 

 

After the first night passed with everyone in the house safe and sound, it seemed as though the motley crew was starting to get over the after-shock of their surprise encounter with danger.

Despite business being practically non-existent for the Broken Vial since all individuals with non-human blood were not getting past Yixing’s wards, life resumed as normal for the next few days. As normal as it could be when sharing a house with six other people; albeit quite a large house with plenty of space to go around.

There was conflict at first when it came to use of the television in the living room (admittedly most of this conflict occurred between Ash and Rhoslyn, the adults capable of occupying themselves), and Baekhyun was slowly losing his mind over the mess. Kyungsoo had once implied that Baekhyun may have some form of OCD and Chanyeol could definitely see how he reached this conclusion. Although, it was perfectly understandable; he had very little control over his life so, to allow him to force everyone to colour code the crockery or arrange glasses in height order then seemed like a fair exchange.

Once the basic house rules had been established, their new arrangement went fairly smoothly. Everyone had their own responsibilities; Junmyeon guarded the shop in the daytime, Ash was on night watch, Kyungsoo spent the majority of his time alone attempting to interpret visions, Yixing dealt with his work clients and prepared food while Baekhyun managed the fort. Chanyeol kept the cupboards stocked with food, trudging to the shops every morning and running any errand the others couldn’t run for themselves. Rhoslyn had the responsibility of painting people’s nails, drawing them pictures, and singing them her favourite songs whenever she felt spirits starting to dwindle.

Baekhyun said one evening as he tucked her into bed, Chanyeol by his side at the young girl’s adamant request, that she had the most important job of them all.

As for Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s relationship; it had blossomed into a spectacular romance. They were utterly infatuated with one another, their feelings only becoming more intensified with every moment they spent trapped in that shop, practically attached at the hip.

It felt as though Chanyeol was some kind of missing puzzle piece who came into their lives and brought with him everything the family of friends felt they needed. He gave Baekhyun the ‘something’ his life had been missing, he gave Kyungsoo a reason to move on from the shackles of the past, and he gave Rhoslyn a taste of the wider world, something she couldn’t even dream of before.

As for Chanyeol, he was seeing in colour for the first time in his life. Baekhyun spoke his language; the language of his heart. While previously in his life, he had thought that the chances of finding a heart that resonated with his own an impossibility, the way Baekhyun’s affection met with his own was explosive.

It had been a particularly dull day one Friday and both Chanyeol and Baekhyun were relieved to climb into bed when nightfall came, for want of something to do if nothing else.

They had spent the entire day together, aside from the half hour or so which Chanyeol spent on the hunt for a book for Yixing to read and, for Rhoslyn, a “pink and sparkly bow, but not as sparkly as a _very_ sparkly bow because it wouldn’t match her pink sparkly shoes.” This didn't mean they were tired of each other, nor did they want for anything to say. Even silence between them was filled to the brim.

“You sure have raised a young girl who knows what she wants, Baek,” Chanyeol chuckled as he snuggled up to Baekhyun in bed, pulling the duvet tightly around them both to shield their bodies from the bitter cold. Baekhyun chuckled in return and leaned forward to peck the other man on the lips. Chanyeol pecked back. Baekhyun pecked him again. Chanyeol pecked Baekhyun on the nose.

The fairy rolled his eyes and complained, “if you are going to _kiss me_ could you at least do it properly?”

So Chanyeol did. He wrapped his arms around Baekhyun’s waist and he kissed him with as much passion and feeling as he could muster. He revelled in the humming sounds that emerged from the fairy’s throat and he lost himself in the moment, hot pleasure pooling in his gut. Chanyeol couldn’t help but laugh into the kiss as Baekhyun tried to push his body closer to Chanyeol than was physically possible, wanting to be as consumed by him as he could allow himself to be.

Baekhyun deepened the kiss even more, his hands moving around to clutch at Chanyeol’s hips but stopping before he wandered too far, not wanting to shatter the clear boundaries they had established. As he ran his tongue along Chanyeol’s bottom lip, somehow moaning with both sheer pleasure and dissatisfaction at the same time, the human man pulled away just enough to speak.

“You want more, huh?” His lips brushed against Baekhyun’s own as he whispered.

Baekhyun nodded his head enthusiastically. " _Please."_

Chanyeol grinned cheekily before moving to focus on Baekhyun’s neck. As he kissed and nipped, as light as the wings of a butterfly, he realised that he and Baekhyun had never gone further than kissing one another before then. Sure, their make-out sessions were rather intense but Chanyeol was sure that Baekhyun must have been some kind of saint for putting up with him. He still refused sex; it was completely off the table. Chanyeol had been through his fair share of utterly meaningless, soul-destroying ‘fucks’ and wasn’t letting the same happen with Baekhyun. The fairy never pushed him. Not once.

A sudden wave of braveness moving through his body, Chanyeol began to place a love bite on Baekhyun’s neck, the fairy craning his head to allow him easy access. Doing so took a lot more effort than books or movies implied and he was honestly afraid that if he sucked any harder, he would seriously hurt the other man. That was until he felt Baekhyun’s body rock below him with pleasure.

Then as though a switch was flicked, his human form faded away, leaving a fairy where a young man had just been. Chanyeol was, once again, blown away by his beauty. He felt that he was the luckiest man in the world to see a beauty so unique, so specific to the man he cared for so dearly.

“ _Oh, Chanyeol.”_ The fairy’s words made Chanyeol’s heart soar. He couldn’t help the proud grin that emerged on his face.

Feeling even braver, he decided to very, very gently bite Baekhyun’s neck. He had no idea why, and he doubted it was more painful than an itch or a brush of wind, but it was exhilarating to him.

Baekhyun froze and Chanyeol feared he had done something stupid. _Shit, shit, shit, shit._

Then he saw Baekhyun’s impressed face. He looked…proud. Then he looked distressed.

“Chanyeol!” He yelped. “What was that? I have corrupted your innocence!” He threw his hands over his face in distress.

Chanyeol just laughed at him, removing his hands from his eyes and rolling them around with his own, “you haven’t corrupted me, at all. It still felt weird – I’m not a vampire – but less weird because I know you…like it, I guess…”

Baekhyun pulled his body off the mattress to place another chaste kiss, complete with a smitten smile, to Chanyeol’s lips.

“If it comes from you, Chanyeol, then I like it no matter what. But it means a lot that you think about things like that. You would be surprised at how many guys do not.”

Though his experience was very limited in this field of knowledge, Chanyeol was certain he would not be surprised at all. He nodded anyway.

“Hey, Yeol?” Baekhyun looked into Chanyeol’s eyes with his own black orbs.

Chanyeol looked back, expectantly.

“I know this is stupid – and you can absolutely say no – but, I’ve been thinking that, when all of this is over- when Xing lets the wards down, I mean - and you can go back home…well…if you maybe would like to…not?”

Was Baekhyun asking Chanyeol what the human man thought he was? The abruptness of the question Chanyeol had been waiting for an innumerable amount of days to be asked had finally come out of the fairy’s mouth and he could hardly believe his luck.

“You mean…you want me to stay here? As in, not leave?”

Baekhyun nodded, seemingly more reluctant than he had been a few seconds ago. He opened his mouth to speak, presumably to backtrack, lie maybe, say he didn’t want Chanyeol to stay. The human man didn’t give him the chance.

The way he threw himself at Baekhyun to lock him in a heartfelt embrace, as well as the bright laughter that fell from both of them, was all the answer either of them needed.

It seemed everything was onwards and upwards from that moment on.

 

 

 

As Kyungsoo lay wide awake in his bed, cold and alone but a few doors down, the visions darting in his mind of intruders, roaring mobs, waterfalls of tears, and broken hearts told him a different story. A very different story. A story he did not yet understand enough to utter out loud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This just in: weeks are now more than 7 days long. Crazy, right? So, I am starting to realise that this will be quite long (which is great cause I love writing) I just worry that it is...boring. Let's just say when it comes to "killing your darlings", I never got the memo...so, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I want anyone who finds this to enjoy it; the last thing I want is for this to wash up...BUT I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT THE NEXT CHAPTER aakdakdhakldjf!!! :D :D


	15. Part Three: Tangled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't touched this fic for months so this chapter might have erm...errors? Sorry.

If Chanyeol was worried about having a bad case of the foggy morning head, he needn’t have been. The first step in the dark he took into the basement was also the final step. That certainly woke him up.

“Watch the stairs,” Baekhyun said very unhelpfully as he lit some candles with the flick of his wrist.

Apparently, Baekhyun had work to do down there. It was more likely that he just wanted some peace and quiet. Having six people trapped in the shop indefinitely had driven him a little bit stir crazy. He needed space to breathe and Chanyeol couldn’t say he didn’t feel the same way.

“My ass hurts.” Chanyeol lifted his tired body off of the dusty wooden floor with a groan.

The fairy in his company merely snorted at him in response as he moved around the room, lighting what seemed like a hundred candles. The room began to glow up inch by inch, revealing bizarre object after weird trinklement with every wave of Baekhyun’s hand.

“ _Wow.”_ Chanyeol couldn’t help but pause half-way between lying down and standing to admire the view.

Though the floor and the ceiling of the albeit drab room left a lot to be desired with inches thick of dust on one and cobwebs spun down from the other, the walls were like something out of a dream. Alongside the gatherings of dozens of candles in every colour and size imaginable hung even more peculiarities. A crooked shelf held a collection of copper crowns adorned with pentagrams, crosses, and stars. A mahogany dresser shelved a selection of tiny glass bottles containing various coloured liquids. In fact, upon closer inspection, it seemed some held disembodied animal parts, ominous looking viscous substances, and even a dead teacup piglet suspended in some sort of brine.

Chanyeol couldn’t help but scrunch his nose up in disgust.

“What’s that horrible face for, huh?” Baekyhun teased as he wrapped his arms around Chanyeol’s waist, stretching to place his chin on the human’s shoulder. That way he could share his eye line.

“What is that thing?”

Baekhyun chuckled and placed a gentle peck on the spot where Chanyeol’s earlobe met the crook of his neck; this had become quite the habit for him and he revelled in the way that the human man shivered from the sensitivity.

“Anyone would think you had never seen a mutilated pig foetus in a jar of whiskey before. Best keep that on the D.L., you uncultured swine,” he really couldn’t help but laugh at his own pun. Chanyeol didn’t find it funny and, with every turn of his head, his eye caught onto something even more horrific.

“Ah, yes. Veronica has quite the collection, doesn’t she? She is certainly the woman to call if you have any witch-related requests.”

Chanyeol was sure the fairy was right about that. Unfortunately, he didn’t think he would have much use for a jar of human thumbs any time soon.

“My favourite of the lot is her death mask, personally,” Baekhyun continued to peck away at Chanyeol’s neck, clearly unperturbed. Chanyeol found it anything but arousing, though, and he would sooner have sent vomit up north than pool his blood down south. He was shivering in discomfort, set on edge by the things he faced for which he had no explanation.

Baekyhun used his long fingers to direct Chanyeol’s gaze towards a stuffed fox with a human face attached where the fox’s own should have been – where Chanyeol wished it had been. His stomach did a flip as his eyes focused on the waxy mask; while it only _looked_ like a human face the lack of life behind the peaceful, well-crafted eyes had a certain uneasiness about it, perhaps because it forced Chanyeol to confront the notion of death. The one time when a human merely _looks_ like a living being, but the life within them has long since been snubbed out. Oh, the irony.

“Dare I ask why it is your favourite?”

He tentatively followed as the fairy made his way over to the death mask in question and studied it closely, without the fear Chanyeol himself felt rippling through his body.

“The likeness mostly,” he shrugged, “it’s like Veronica is in the room with us. Most people have their death mask made _after_ they die but she is such a self-absorbed narcissist that she had to have one made to ‘reflect her youth.” He rolled his eyes.

Chanyeol couldn’t help but note the deep wrinkles on the mask’s forehead or the crow’s feet framing the eyes. It was a likeness, alright. Not quite as youthful as Veronica may have hoped.

“If she wants to believe 40 in human years is still ‘youth’ then I won’t be the one to burst her bubble,” Baekhyun quipped, grimacing at the mask as if it also carried the witch’s personality with it, “besides, it gives me a great deal of hope.”

“What that mortality is inevitable?” That was a fact Chanyeol tried his damn hardest to forget.

“No, silly,” Baekhyun ran a hand through Chanyeol’s thick, knotted hair, so close that the two men were sharing breath, “that the nasty witch will drop dead one day.”

“You evil bastard!” Chanyeol choked out with a horrified laugh.

“Ooo! Talk dirty to me!” Baekhyun teased, flinging his arms around Chanyeol’s neck.

It was difficult to tell who moved in to kiss first. This kiss was an aggressive one either way, so much so that it clouded Chanyeol’s mind enough to distract him from the room of horrors he was in. Baekhyun kissed him so hard, immediately using his tongue to force Chanyeol’s lips open. He moaned so loudly which made Chanyeol’s heart flutter. They would have to come down to the secluded basement more often!

“ _Oh my God, Chanyeol.”_

Chanyeol chuckled. “Someone is noisy today?”

That earned him a smack on the arm, “just lie down on the floor, would you? It’s easier to reach you that way.”

The fairy always was such a romantic.

***

After they had worn themselves out, they lay side by side on the floor. Their legs were tangled together to the point where it was hard to see where one man ended and the other began. They were fully clothed, unlike the hour previous, if not haphazardly, just in case one of the owners of the thundering feet upstairs made an appearance.

Chanyeol shuffled around slightly so that the bones in his arse wouldn’t scrape painfully on the solid floor.

“What arse!?” Baekhyun teased as he moved aside to let Chanyeol sort himself out.

Chanyeol opted not to say anything in response but that didn’t stop the fairy from carrying on taunting him.

“I’m just saying, babe. A few squats when you’re boiling the kettle and I’ll have something more substantial to hold onto. You know? Make out make-out sessions a bit more…tactile…”

This earned him a forceful shove. It would have been much more forceful (what with Chanyeol’s impressive physical strength) had Baekhyun not been superhuman and all.

“I still think you’re cute, though,” Baekhyun whispered.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mmm…”

He leaned into a deep kiss, Chanyeol soon reciprocating. Even without the candles, the man believed that the room would have glowed with warmth.

“By the way…”

“Mmm…” Baekyhun was too engrossed in Chanyeol’s calloused hands to say much else.

“What are we actually lying on?”

It felt like a rug. Yet, it was suspiciously fluffy and smelled too much like an actual animal.

“The Horned God?” He almost questioned, as though it were obvious.

“The…what now?”

“The Horned God. The God of the witches,” he said with a flourish of his arms, as if he were some kind of ringmaster introducing the next act, “of course, it is just a deer with a bit of extra fluff weaved in but…”

He trailed off as both men flipped their bodies over to face the “Horned God’s” glass eyes.

“We just made out on this.” Baekhyun turned his nose up at the thought. He turned to look at Chanyeol’s very similar grimace. They burst out laughing at the thought, rolling back into each other’s arms. What’s another hour lying on a corpse when you just made out on one?

“It’s the circle of life, Baek.”

“That it is, Yeol.”

Chanyeol would have gladly lay there for hours more talking to Baekhyun, sharing his wisdom. Apparently, the Horned God is a god of fertility, of the bridge between life and death.

“There is also a female version. She’s the same. A deer-looking thing. Just with human boobs.”

Chanyeol found this very amusing and forced the fairy to dig out a painting of the horned goddess so he could see for himself. It did not disappoint.

He was explaining to Chanyeol how human fat can be melted down into a candle (unfortunately, he had an actual human candle to demonstrate with) when they were interrupted.

“So, yeah. You can either kill them or shed the fat…somehow but you can’t burn them al-…wait…” Baekhyun’s eyes widened and Chanyeol felt his entire body tense up.

“W-what? What’s wrong?”

Baekyhun leapt to his feet and shut his eyes, focusing deeply on something Chanyeol couldn’t detect. Then, in the blink of an eye, his skin shimmered and his eyes were awash with black. His ears transformed into his own, fairy one’s and turned slightly, back towards the door.

He gasped in horror.

“Someone has set off the wards!” He screamed, panic tearing through his vocal cords, “fucking hell, Chanyeol! They’ve found us!”

Before the other man could say a thing, Bakehyun was off like a shot. He raced up the basement stairs, bursting through the door and onto the shop floor.

“Baek! Wait! Slow down!” Chanyeol ran as fast as his long legs could carry him but his speed was no match for the fairy who could literally walk on air.

All of the men in the house had gathered in the shop. Kyungsoo was in his night clothes given the late hour, Yixing and Junmyeon were in a similar state of undress.

“What the fuck is going on!?” Baekhyun bellowed.

Yixing, being as helpful as he could be, tried to reason with Baekyhun despite the fear in the apothecarist’s own eyes, “don’t fret, love. It could just be a customer.”

“At eleven o’clock at night? Give me a fucking break.” Kyungsoo muttered as he felt for Baekhyun’s arm, his stoic energy a contrast to Baekhyun’s frantic aura.

“Well, whatever it is,” Junmyeon growled, “I’ll handle them.”

He grabbed a cane carved from bone from a basket by the till and charged outside.

It was pouring it down with rain. The water as it mixed with the electric energy of the wards lit up the sky, making a horrible wailing sound.

“Junmyeon, are you fucking insane!?” Yixing ran after him, not caring that he was only dressed in a nightshirt, “whatever that thing is, it isn’t human! Use your head!”

Junmyeon wasn’t listening as he waded through the flooded courtyard towards the alleyway.

The three other men also made their way out of the shop; Kyungsoo held onto Baekhyun as though he were the only thing holding him up, Baekhyun cried silent tears. Chanyeol just let the rain soak him through as he stood helplessly.

He was terrified. Some other-worldly creature had set off the wards; it was impossible for pure human blood to trigger such a ferocious response. What if they attacked him? What if they attacked Baekhyun?!

Chanyeol had no time to worry about this, however, since Junmyeon had already got the culprit in his grasp, ruthlessly dragging them across the wards, letting the electric current scorch their body.

The thing was conscious but wearing down quickly. Through the pouring rain, Chanyeol could make out nothing but a male form. The body was trembling from the cold and, were the circumstances different he may have felt pity.

“Anyone know this asshole?” Junmyeon spat.

“Calm down, Jun!” Yixing ordered, obviously cracking under the tension.

“Who _cares_ who he is!? Just get _rid of him!”_ Baekhyun spat, his sobs very obvious through his cracking voice.

The body on the floor let out a whimpering sound.

“ _Please, please, please,”_ he begged. Almost pathetically.

Kyungsoo was becoming increasingly irritated, “if you want to say something, then pull yourself together!”

Chanyeol couldn’t help but feel they were all being a bit too harsh.

“Wh-what do you want?” He shouted.

Junmyeon glared at him in a way that made his blood run cold.

The man on the floor lifted his head from the wet ground and looked so relieved all of a sudden that Chanyeol thought he might pass out altogether.

“Chanyeol?” The man said with immense emotion. All eyes fell on Chanyeol leaving him feeling exposed and vulnerable.  

“Yeol! It’s me!”

The whole world stood still. Chanyeol knew that voice. He had grown up around that voice.

“ _Jongin!?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JONGIN IS NOT A HUMAN WHAT?!?!? Did you see that coming?! I sure didn't when I started writing the first chapter huehue. I have actually seen a death mask sewn onto a taxidermy fox in person and when I say it appeared in my nightmares for months afterwards, I mean it. The Horned God with boobs is also a thing I saw with my own two eyes...Until next time; hope life is treating you well :)


	16. Part Three - Falling Blossoms

 

“So, you lied to me is what you are saying?”

Chanyeol stood in the corner of his room at the shop, a room he hadn’t stepped foot in for weeks. It was the only place he and Jongin could be completely alone.

Jongin let out a weary whine, “No, Chanyeol! I didn’t lie!”

“Right, sure,” Chanyeol glared at his friend, a face like thunder, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He wanted to shield Jongin from the fact that his hands were furiously shaking.

At first, he thought his body’s intense reaction was fear. After all, he was in the presence of a powerful being, regardless of the fact that it had the face of one of his best friends. His friend wasn’t a monster. His friend was an aspiring dancer, a doting son. His friend sneaked gimbap rolls out of the café he worked at during his school years for Chanyeol to eat on his walk home. His friend took care of his younger siblings since his own mother couldn’t. His friend was a noraebang _king,_ famous in their tiny town for having the highest score on every single girl group song on the crappy, underserviced machines.

His friend was _Jongin._ Not the dishevelled, broken man before him.

But Chanyeol wasn’t scared. There wasn’t a fraction of fear coursing through his body. What he was feeling was anger. A fury so intense it made him barely recognise himself. Chanyeol never got angry. There was enough anger in the world for every human being – twice over. Yet, the betrayal he had experienced for years, completely unbeknownst to him, had made him furious in a way he could hardly articulate.

“So, you aren’t a fucking _creature,_ then? You are a human?” Chanyeol laughed at the absurdity of the situation. The past few months had him under the impression that he had lost his mind long ago. Was he clinically insane? Or was his life just a genuine maelstrom of _shit_?

Jongin looked pathetic. The way he threw himself to his knees, sobbing, clinging onto Chanyeol’s trouser leg – still wet from the rain – as though he could find the force the immense empathy out of Chanyeol that he knew still resided somewhere beneath the coldness.

“GET A GRIP OF YOURSELF!” Chanyeol’s bass tones bellowed through the house, echoing off the wooden panelling, shaking the porcelain ornaments on the mantlepiece.

“Please, Chanyeol. Please hear me out. I beg you!”

Chanyeol let out a guttural groan, almost a scream. His head was pounding and all he wanted was answers but he felt sick to his stomach.

“Do you know how you have made Baekhyun feel?”

Of course, the fairy was the main thing on Chanyeol’s mind. Lust and infatuation did that to a person. Chanyeol was willing to entirely abandon his personal resentment towards the man in front of him. He was willing to set aside the fact that the foundations on which his life had stood were in tatters, leaving nothing but rubble behind. All he could think about was the man downstairs. The man who hadn’t stopped crying for the past two hours. The man who would not let his daughter out of his sight for fear that if he did, she would vanish with the next gust of wind.

“ _I’ve said I am sorry!_ I had no way of knowing!”

“And you thought it would be a good idea to just _barge in!?_ Huh!?”

“Chanyeol, please! What has happened to you? You used to be so kind. The kindest person in this shitty world, even. Why are you being such a freaking arsehole!?”

That made Chanyeol feel sick to his stomach. He realised then why he never got angry at anyone; anger is like swallowing a drop of poison and waiting for someone else to drop dead. It’s utterly futile and leaves you hollow. Completely devoid of any feeling that actually matters, that actually helps anyone in any way.

“You’re wrong, Jongin,” he said with a sad sigh, “because _you_ were one of the kindest people in this shitty world.”

The other man let out a choked sob and clung tightly to Chanyeol’s arm.

“I am still me, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol struggled to find it in him to believe that. Had his entire life been a lie? He had already discovered that his understanding of humanity, the universe and the fabric of life was completely misguided. He didn’t want to believe that the things he devoted his whole life to were misguided, as well. He didn’t want to believe that one of his best friends was never who he pretended to be. Never truly existed at all.

“Who are you, Jongin?”

“Would you believe me if I told you?” He replied with the ghost of a smile.

“Try me.”

 

 

A siren.

Jongin was a siren. Well, half siren half human, at least. That would certainly impress his friends who had previously thought he was a mere ditz with a gift for ballet.

“ _Omma,_ are you having me on?” He paused in the midst of combing his mother’s silky jet-black hair. She was far too weak to do it for herself and she was getting weaker by the day.

It was the eve of his eighteenth birthday; such a cliché but his mother insisted that he find out the truth there and then.

“Au contraire, darling. If I only were,” she said with a light chuckle.

“You mean to tell me that I am going to turn into a beautiful fish lady and murder sailors? Is that what this is?”

His mother smacked him on the arm.

“Don’t be stupid.”

He shrugged at her obliviously. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think his mother’s mysterious ailments had reached her mind but the look of sincerity mixed with the lively fire in her eyes told her a different story.

“You’re only half siren. You have human blood, too. Hence the lack of tail, and flowing golden locks, she paused with a pensive gaze into the distance (more like the damp wall of their tiny living room where the two slept every night on the cold floor. They couldn’t afford floor heating). “Although, it does explain the sea of young men falling at your feet…”

“ _Omma!”_ His cheeks flamed up in embarrassment. “I don’t even know why I told you. It’s not like I can be gay in Korea anyway…”

His mother smiled sympathetically, “all in due time, my dear. Nothing is impossible with time on our side. What do I always say to you?”

He rolled his eyes, “it doesn’t matter how slowly we go, as long we never stop moving.”

“Exactly!” Jongin grimaced at the sloppy kiss his mother left on his cold cheeks.

“Besides, you’re talking to a woman who is literally part fish!”

And part fish she was. See, Jongin’s mother started her life as a siren. The ocean was her most frequent haunt and her favourite pass time was luring sailors to their deaths. It made sense; she did always have a dazzling beauty about her. She wasn’t pale and primed to perfection like the other women Jongin came across in his life. No, she was beautiful in a different way. Not the kind of beauty that made one believe that the world revolves in its favour, that the universe reveres it but the kind that reminds one why the universe has to exist, why the world revolves at all. Because it is a beauty that exists inside of her.

Unfortunately, that beauty began to die before its time because Jongin’s mother had to fall in love. With a human man.

An abalone fisher from a coastal island. A thankless job. A life without reward. But the siren woman found life in him.

She gave up her life as a siren, despite knowing that in doing so, her body would weaken and, eventually, give up on her entirely. It was a risk she was more than willing to take. As her body became a shadow of what it once was and a mere eggshell to house the vibrant woman she would always be, she didn’t regret a thing. One look into the eyes of her children, the dark skin they inherited from their father and copies of her light brown eyes made losing her own life worthwhile.

But, as is often the way with life, she could never have anticipated the way her husband vanished forever without warning. She told the children, only toddlers at the time, that he had been given a very important job to do. That the goddess of the sea needed him to rescue the souls of those lost to the ocean’s cold wrath.

This was all too far from the truth. At first, she had hoped that his boat had simply become weathered by a ferocious storm and that her love would return home soon to his family; to his wife who loved him dearly and to his children who needed him.

That day never came. His boat had never left the harbour and it still remained there fifteen years later, gathering algae and cockles and muscles. Her husband would have never allowed it to get into such a state. This is why she never believed that he had been returned to the sea permanently. The ajummas who dived for a living gossiped so; they thought he had killed himself. With a sick wife and three children, who could blame him?

It just wasn’t true, however. The man who spent his life loving the sea would never rid himself of the opportunity to breathe the fresh ocean air even once more.

Jongin’s mother knew this.

 “What would you like me to do with this information?” Jongin asked his mother softly.

No answer came for a few fleeting moments. She supposed she had never thought this far ahead. She supposed she just wanted someone else to share her load. As she delved deeper into the crevices of her mind, however, her deepest desires made themselves known.

“I need to find him.”

She said it with such conviction that it filled Jongin with a fire unlike any other. She wanted, _needed_ to find Jongin’s father and, to do that, she needed to go back to the ocean. Back where she truly belonged.

She couldn’t do it on her own, though. Her body was in no state to drag her to the harbour let alone being strong enough to lead her through the ocean on a potentially futile rescue mission.

“I need you to promise me, Jongin,” she said with a firm voice but soft eyes, “if you ever find a way to get me back into that ocean, you will help me. You will help me to find your father.”

 

 

“That’s what brought me here,” Jongin explained to a stunned Chanyeol.

The human man hadn’t said a single word as he was taken on a journey, once again, through the life of someone who, as far as he was concerned, should not exist. Yet he was drawn into it just as he had been with Baekhyun because, while deathly sad, he friend’s story was immensely captivating.

“I met Veronica,” Jongin went on.

Chanyeol’s body froze on instinct.

“I met her in the pub actually. She could sense the…siren blood, I guess,” he said without certainty, possibly just as perplexed about the whole situation as Chanyeol was, “she asked me about my mother and told me she could help me. So, I let her.”

Jongin looked so completely content with the idea that Veronica had given him refuge. Clearly, she had managed to win him over, much as she had done with Chanyeol that very same day. But Chanyeol knew better than Jongin did than to believe that Veronica had been doing him a favour out of the goodness of her heart.

Chanyeol was itching to say this, to tell his friend how stupidly naïve he had been to fall into this woman’s trap. He wanted to grab Jongin by the collar of his drenched shirt and scream at him for his insolence. Did he have the faintest idea the kind of danger he could have brought upon the small family in the shop? Did he have any clue whom he could have led directly to them?

Most pressingly of all; what did Veronica want Jongin for?

Baekyhun had made it pretty clear that, to Veronica, the rest of the world was just a collection of pawns she could use in her evil games and, as a desperate man who would risk everything to help his mother, Jongin had a glaring target on his back.

Of course, Chanyeol didn’t say any of this out loud.

“What on earth have you been doing for the last how-ever-long, anyway?” He opted for instead.

Jongin was staring guiltily at his hands like a petulant child being scolded for his bad behaviour. He worried his lips between his teeth and picked at the skin around his fingernails (a nervous habit he had possessed even as a child) and Chanyeol’s heart began to palpitate. What had he done to warrant such a reaction?

“Erm,” the siren man began tentatively, “I’ve been helping out one of Veronica’s friends?”

This piqued Chanyeol’s attention. It was hard to imagine that someone as conniving as Veronica could hold on to friends but, then again, she was pretty manipulative.

“I was staying with her friend actually. Veronica was…busy. Said she had some ‘business to attend to’ but didn’t say what.”

Well, that did not come as a surprise.

“What friend exactly?”

Both Chanyeol and Jongin whipped their heads around in response to a very harsh voice.

Baekhyun was standing in the doorway to the dimly lit room, his image barely a silhouette as the light shining in from the landing manipulated his delicate features. Dark shadows formed beneath his glaring eyes and Chanyeol knew this was the angriest he had e _ver_ seen him.

 _So, he is the passive-aggressive type when he is pissed,_ Chanyeol thought to himself, unhelpfully, but it was a point duly noted.

Jongin clearly sensed this, too, and tensed up in fear, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.

“I…erm…well, she ah…”

“Look, just spit it out, will you!? I haven’t got all day!” Baekhyun bellowed with a certain grit to his voice which convinced Chanyeol he was looking at a complete stranger. The man he had kissed the life into earlier that day was nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t know!” Jongin whined with his face in his hands, “just a friend! Called Che- Sher…,” he rubbed his hands through his hair in frustration, “Shed-something.”

Baekhyun scoffed and tutted in quick succession, blatantly growing in anger.

“Shed-something?” He spat, “Wow, Chanyeol. Your _friend_ here is a god damn genius! Bang your two heads together we may have one functioning brain synapse! Hey!?”

Chanyeol felt sick to his stomach at this, his head beginning to pound with a sharp fear. Why was Baekhyun turning on him suddenly? He hadn’t done anything wrong? Had Veronica not victimised him, too? Surely, Baekyhun knew that he had no part of this? That he was just as betrayed by Jongin’s antics and almost just as afraid as the fairy was of the witch.

“Baek, what are you-“

“Shut up, Chanyeol! Just shut up! You’ve created a big, huge fucking mess and I can barely look at you right now!”

Chanyeol stared into his lover’s face for even a glint of guilt, regret, or even sadness but was met with only anger. Raging fury manifested itself in the way black ink began to pool into Baekhyun’s eyes.

For the first time, Chanyeol saw not a man before him but a monster. The evil fairies he had read about as a child felt all too real to him in that dark room.

Jongin began to visibly flounder again, “see, she made me call her ‘auntie’ when I was there but…but Veronica called her ‘Shed’ or ‘Lynn’ and…and she used to make these little dolls with erm…”

He trailed off again, looking at his palms as though one of the so-called dolls would manifest itself in his hands, allowing him to prove himself to the father who looked like he could eat Jongin alive.

“Chedeline,” Baekyhun stated. He remained silent and Chanyeol thought he might burst with anticipation. He needed to know if that put Baekhyun in any more danger than he was already in.

He couldn’t bear it any more before he barely whispered, “who is that?”

Baekyhun glared right through him before deciding to reply.

“She is an old woman who practises Haitian voodoo,” he explained coldly. “She comes to the shop sometimes when she needs some supplies. Oils for exorcisms, dead chicken corpses for her spirit readings.”

That didn’t sound very promising.

“It’s dark magic, Chanyeol. Veronica has contacts with some _evil_ people and now we can be damn sure they know where to find us!” His eyes turned manic, “How lucky are we!? She really is outdoing herself this time! That bitch is going to kill us, Chanyeol! And it is all your fault!! She has used you and your lovely friend to make a sick plan work! What an idiot our Chanyeollie is, huh? And all credit to her! You made it so fucking easy.” His voice cracked then and the tears began to flow in a torrent of fear, anger, and distress down his face. His eyes turned completely black and his deep blue veins sprung up on his skin.

The way he tried to cover himself up with the green woollen cardigan he was wearing over the clothes he had left laid out on the basement floor, mixed up with Chanyeol’s own, just a few hours ago. He was ashamed. He was ashamed of himself, something he had assured Chanyeol he could never be in the human man’s presence. In just a few hours, the trust between the two of them had been completely obliterated.

“Baekhyun, stop!” Chanyeol cried as the fairy rubbed ferociously at his skin in a vein attempt to fade the marks. He wanted the fairy to stop sobbing so, he wanted him to stop feeling so vulnerable and disgusted in himself. Most of all, he wanted Baekhyun to listen to him. “You don’t even know what she is planning for sure! The potion she used on me hasn’t worked, she hasn’t actually told Jongin to do anything or to give her any information…”

He looked to Jongin for confirmation.

“Oh! Oh no, she hasn’t asked me to do anything. I really only want to help my mother. Honest!”

“My _daughter_ could be seconds away from being at the receiving end of a fucking _witch_ trying to _kill_ her and you want me to _stop!?”_ He began to hyperventilate, “are you being deliberately thick? Jongin, right?” A nod came in reply. “Can you be sure that your dear “auntie” hasn’t been extracting information about Chanyeol to make him more susceptible to her ghastly spells?”

Jongin shook his head guiltily.

“And Chanyeol; what the hell do you know? You’ve been here for no time at all, you have already been cursed once, how do you know it wont happen again?”

Chanyeol knew that. He knew that very well and the thought made his blood run cold and his tongue run dry but he _couldn’t bear_ the sight of Baekhyun in so much pain.

“Jongin,” he tried to speak as calmly as possible, “could you give us a minute, please?”

“Oh no, _Jongin,”_ Baekhyun hissed, “that will be quite alright. I’m done here. Now I know I’ve got a witch and a woman with evil _“little dolls_ ” on my tail, I’ve got better things to do than fraternise with complete idiots…like you.” He looked into Chanyeol’s eyes as he said this.

It is shocking that the heart doesn’t stop the ticking of time when it breaks. But the way Chanyeol’s heart clenched ever so tightly knocked the breath out of him.

“Baek, please,” he fell to his knees and begged. Pathetic, really, a grown man begging on his knees but he was losing hope, “this isn’t my fault. It…it isn’t anyone’s fault. You surely know that? You know I haven’t been helping Veronica behind your back, right?”

For the first time, Chanyeol detected sadness in Baekhyun’s eyes but it was not likely sadness at the thought of losing Chanyeol. No. The fairy was sad that he ever let Chanyeol into his home at all.

“I’m sorry, Chanyeol,” he said without sounding sorry at all, “I can’t risk it. It can’t be a coincidence that you and your _friend_ turn up on my door right before my life starts going to shit.”

“Baek…”

“No. I don’t feel safe here, Chanyeol. I need to feel safe in my own home and I can’t anymore. Not when you are here.”

Chanyeol barely noticed the hot tears as they fell down his cheeks and slid down his neck. He did remember, though as they slid past his collarbone, how Baekyhun’s warm lips, soft like flower petals, had felt as they kissed him there. He thought those kisses felt like love.

“I _love_ you, Baekyhun,” he sniffed as the sadness became too heavy behind his eyes, “I love you so, so much. Please, don’t do this.”

The fairy gracefully raised his delicate hands towards Chanyeol’s damp cheeks, softly stroking the skin there. His eyes were glassy with tears, his smile was sad, but his resolve was unwavering.

There was no way of surmounting the love of a parent for their child. Baekhyun loved Rhoslyn far too much to bring danger into her world.

“I’m sorry, Chanyeol,” he choked, passing a small wave of magical energy into the human’s face, making his whole body tingle with desire and longing. Chanyeol almost thought it was cruel but he knew it wasn’t intended to be.

“You’re too late.”

He walked away then, leaving a devastated Chanyeol in his wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :(((( I feel like this fic is a bit shit but I really want to finish it now. I need someone else out there to know how this ends lol. I've been thinking about this for nearly a year ffs!!! If you have got this far; thank you so, so much. Really truly, thank you. I promised myself that if even one person reads this I'd be pleased and I mean that. I think I need to have more faith that you, as the reader, are able to plough through my messy plot lines and dodgy pacing/structure etc even if the story draw in my brain is a right mess. After all, this is just for fun.  
> This story has 4 parts and part for is starting in the next chapter so...nearly finished...harharhar  
> BYTHEWAY this story has playlist:   
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Frf7gCkI7GULDBwpl3Ua7 (I have no clue how to make this a link yikes)


	17. Part Four - The Water is Wide

_The water is wide, I can't cross over_  
_And neither have I wings to fly_  
_Build me a boat that can carry two_  
_And both shall row, My love and I_  
  
_There is a ship and she sails the sea_  
_She's loaded deep as deep can be_  
_But not as deep as the love I'm in_  
_I know how I sink or swim_  
  
_Oh love is handsome and love is kind_  
_The sweetest flower when first it's new_  
_But love grows old and waxes cold_  
_And fades away like summer dew_

_Build me a boat that can carry two_  
_And both shall row, My love and I_

And both shall row, My love and I  
  
  


 

_\- The Water is Wide_

_James Taylor_


	18. Part Four - I'm Going Home

There was one thing Baekhyun’s mother had said to him often as a child. She would whisper it to him softly every single night as he fell asleep, as though it were a mantra he would no doubt rely on in his life.

“Feelings are just visitors, Baekyhun,” she would say in her tuneful voice which never failed to soothe her son’s aching heart, “you must let them come and go.”

This was a sentiment he had never understood as a child. What was the sense in letting a happy feeling go when you could cling on to it forever instead? He thought she was completely wrong.

But as he sat on the step outside the shop on his first night without Chanyeol, he understood her a little better than ever before. He knew why some things were best left to fly away on the wind because, to force them to remain would only create a storm.

He thought this as he watched the drops of rain tumble from the sky, mixing with his own tears, forming puddles at his feet. It was pitch black and freezing cold with nought but the stars to keep him company yet he barely noticed.

He wondered as he gazed upwards whether his mother could see him sitting there that night. He searched for the Orion constellation with immense longing in the desperate hope that she would offer him a sign, a clue or anything at all to comfort him. He ached to know whether he had made the right decision.

The man he was very close to falling completely, absolutely, irrevocably in love with had gone.

Before he had even a moment to consider what he was doing, he had thrown Chanyeol out into the rain. He had thrown him out of his life forever. He had let him go.

He was certain that clinging on to him would have caused him so much suffering, even if his presence made Baekhyun’s heart feel so full.

Chanyeol had admitted to Baekhyun that he loved him that night. He thought the man was a fool and was almost offended that the human had used his feelings as ammunition in their personal battle. Did he honestly think that would change anything? Why would anyone be so careless as to expose their vulnerability to the universe in such a way? Why would someone waste such a pure sentiment in such dark time?

In a way, Baekhyun was thankful for the bitter cold, damp air. It numbed him to the point where he couldn’t feel his head pounding any longer. It distracted him from the way his bloodshot eyes stung as they tried to force out even more tears to no avail. It made him forget the way his throat had become raw from his wailing, a sickening, pitiful kind of sob that he couldn’t even hear anymore. He had travelled so far into the depths of his mind that he felt he had completely detached from himself.

At least he no longer had to face his miserable reality.

He had to have made the right decision, surely?

Chanyeol was a man he had known for mere weeks and it could not be a coincidence that his presence brought with it a series of misfortune.

Veronica had brought him to The Broken Vial. He had brought his half-blooded friend. Had he brought the group of girls to the shop as well? Was he in on the scare tactics used against the father?

Baekhyun had no idea.

He wanted to doubt it. His heart longed for nothing more but he just couldn’t erase the thought from his racing mind. The seed had been planted long ago and, before he knew it, that seed had grown into a ghastly tree.

“If only you were here, mother,” he managed through the tears, gazing up at the stars glistening through the veil of tears, “you would surely know what to do.”

His body wracked with sobs once again as he heaved through each painful breath.

“Why did you have to leave me, mom?” He buried his burning, blotchy face into his hands which dripped with sweat whilst somehow becoming as cold as ice. “It is so unfair, mom! I can’t do this without you. An eternity is far too long to live without your mother.”

He wailed again, croaking through the pain in his throat.

He felt so utterly devastated, so broken and so lost. He felt the kind of sadness that makes you feel as though you are dying. His whole body begged for him to thrash and scream, to run and hide, and to curl up and sleep forever all at once. It was completely unbearable and he had never felt pain like it.

He supposed that’s what love feels like.

It isn’t something you notice when it is there, much like the beating of your heart or the breath flowing in and out of your lungs.

Instead, it is something that you ache for when it is gone. Your body gags for the person you miss and you heart aches at the thought of losing someone you love as their presence fades before your eyes.

As a man facing both of these feelings at the same time, he felt his world begin to end.

He had lost his mother.

He had lost the man his heart was blossoming for.

He could soon lose his child, too.

In a vain attempt to relieve the pain, like a gas pipe building with excess pressure, he screamed into his hands once more.

The door to the shop creaked behind him in a way that hinted at the way the person opening it was trying to go undetected.

Baekhyun wondered if, providing he stayed still enough he would go undetected. He held his breath wishing that the intruder would leave him alone to wallow in his self-pity. Yixing would be too optimistic, Junmyeon would be too emotionally clumsy, and Kyungsoo would say too many awful things about Chanyeol, none of which he could bear. The prowler could have been Ash, however, hunting for her next meal in feline form. That, he could live with.

However, when he detected the clumpy, uneven footsteps of a walker needing much more practice, his heart began to pound and he immediately stopped crying.

“ _Rhoslyn_ , what on earth are you doing here?” He asked in a hysteric voice, hoping she didn’t detect anything untoward.

She tentatively made her way over to her father, her bare feet pattering through puddle after puddle, coating her tiny toes in splashes of mud. Over her head, she held the blanket from her bed, one knitted for her by Luna when she was just a small baby. It did little to shield her from the rain.

“Baby, you will freeze. Please go back inside.”

She didn’t stop making her way over to him and when she finally reached him, she sat beside him, soaking her night dress right through, and pulled the blanket over both of their heads.

“If I you are going to be cold then so am I,” she said sternly. “If daddy is sad then he needs help to feel better. I am staying with you and you aren’t going to stop me so don’t actually try.”

Despite himself, Baekhyun cracked a strained smile. That was his Rhoslyn, alright. Always putting others before herself, always being far too switched on, way beyond her years. Her juvenile attempt at solidarity warmed Baekhyun up a little.

“You, missy, are a silly billy.”

He threw his arms around her tiny frame and squeezed her, burying his face in her hair, breathing in her scent so he could be certain that he would never forget it. It was a scent that sparked a plethora of emotions inside of him because it reminded him of the life he had helped to create and the amazing young girl he had raised. It was his favourite scent.

“You are a silly billy, too, daddy.”

She hugged him back and the cold night finally started to feel less like an empty void again.

“You are so, so silly because you made the tall man go. You made him leave, daddy and that was so, so silly.”

When the first hot tears poured from Rhoslyn’s innocent eyes, Baekhyun’s heart shattered all over again.

“Oh, baby. I am sorry. I didn’t know he meant so much to you. Chanyeol loves you very much and he didn’t _want_ to leave you but I need you to understand,” he stared directly into her bright blue eyes, “this – none of this – is your fault. Sometimes, adults fall out for reasons too difficult and complicated for children to understand but it is not for you to worry about.”

Her eyes lit up with determination.

“No, daddy! You are wrong! I _do_ understand this. You love the tall man but you made him go away because you are scared!”

“No, baby. It isn’t that simp-…”

“Yes, daddy! Yes, yes, yes!!” She stomped her tiny feet on the floor as she fought through her limited vocabulary to explain how she felt inside. “It is very easy! It wasn’t Chanyeol’s fault because he is too kind! He is a lovely tall man – not like an evil giant – but like a _kind_ giant. He was keeping us safe because he loved us but you made him go!”

She was yelling at the top of her tiny lungs.

“Stop, stop, stop! Baby, calm down.”

The fairy rushed to pull her into her arms for fear that she may explode like a grenade.

The worst part was, he knew she was right.

No matter what terrifying stuff was going on in his life, it wasn’t Chanyeol’s doing. He was an unconscious agent in all of this, dragged into Baekhyun’s world against his will, yet he had taken it all into his stride. He had taken Baekhyun, his life and his family under his wings without question and did his utmost to fix the mess they were in. Then he became a scapegoat for all of Baekhyun’s fears and frustrations and accepted it all once again.

“Daddy, you know that making Chanyeol go away won’t make the scary things stop? He didn’t make them start because he was all the way across the world when I was born but he might make them stop, only if you let him be here. With us.”

Once again, Baekhyun was flabbergasted at how intelligent and wise beyond her years Rhoslyn was. It made him feel somewhat guilty for forcing her to grow up so quickly but, above all else, he just felt proud.

“When did my baby get so wise?” he asked with a smile as he thread his hands through her soft hair. Her blonde locks served to remind him where Rhoslyn was given life but her smile reminded him who had built the life inside of her. It looked so much like his own.

“I don’t know, daddy,” she thought hard with her eyebrows scrunching up tightly, “but I know something else important, too.”

“What’s that then, my love?”

“Well, Chanyeol let himself be sad to make you happy. I saw him crying when I was hiding in my room today and wondered why he didn’t just tell you he wasn’t going to go. That’s what I’d have done.”

“Oh,” he expressed with delight, forcing down the sadness he felt at the thought of Chanyeol crying because of his idiocy. “I’d expect nothing less from you, missy! You’d have to be dragged out kicking and screaming.”

She rolled her eyes as he placed a kiss to the top of her head, starting to get wet from the water leaking through the holes in her blanket.

“Yes, I would because I don’t want to be sad more than I don’t want you to be sad but…but Chanyeol isn’t like me because I am a shellfish,” she paused for another second.

“Erm…do you mean you are selfish? Because you are not if that is what you’re…”

“No, no, no! What I _mean_ is that Chanyeol thinks you are worth _melting_ for!”

She looked so proud of herself that Baekhyun almost felt sorry to ask, “ah… he thinks what?”

Rhoslyn looked at him like he was utterly stupid and he couldn’t help but chuckle at her irritated little face.

“Like in frozen! The snowman, Olaf thinks that some people are worth melting for!”

_Oh._

“Chanyeol loves you so much that he’d melt for you.”

She was right. Chanyeol would melt for him. In her childish mind, Rhoslyn had made sense of something he couldn’t manage to; Chanyeol loved him so much that, even though it hurt to miss Baekhyun, even though it hurt to watch him go, it hurt even more to watch him suffer. Chanyeol would much rather carry the burden himself than allow Baekhyun to suffer at all.

That is what _love truly is._

You love someone when you are willing to melt for them.

Chanyeol was willing to melt for him.

“That idiot,” he muttered to himself before turning to the child beside him, “you may not be the next Buddha, and I may have to buy you a DVD that isn’t Frozen at some point but…honey, you are a genius!!”

She shrugged as if to say ‘of course’ before throwing another bombshell at her father.

“But, daddy. This is a very important thing: would you melt for Chanyeol?”

 _Would_ he melt for Chanyeol?

There was no doubt in his mind that he would.

Earlier on that night, he may have murdered Chanyeol because, for some stupid reason, his mind in all its frenzy had convinced him that, in doing so, he would rid himself of all of his problems. Little did he know that Chanyeol’s unwavering presence (as daft as the giant fool could be in his innocence at times) was the only thing holding the entire ship together.

“Rhoslyn, it’s time for you to go to bed. Daddy has a snowman to catch up with.”

The cheeky spark in Rhoslyn’s eyes said it all. She understood. She may have been but a child, closed off from the world for her entire life, but she had a vibrant world in her vast little mind and she understood.

“Go get the big giant, daddy! He is too kind to let him go forever!”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Kindness wasn’t Chanyeol’s “problem” at all. It was his greatest strength. And Baekhyun sure as hell needed Chanyeol’s strength then.


	19. Part Four - History Repeats Itself

Baekhyun hovered over the top of Kyungsoo’s bed as he lay sleeping, whispering to softly rouse him from a deep sleep.

“Soo,” he said softly as he gently dragged his finger’s through his friend’s hair.

The only reply he got was a displeased groan.

“Soo, I need to head out for a while. Will you watch Rhoslyn for me?”

Kyungsoo tore his eyes open then and sat up as quickly as his fatigued body would enable him to. He reached out a hand towards Baekhyun and was met with a thick padded jacket.

“W-what time is it? Where the hell are you going in this weather?”

He looked panicked but there was nothing new there. Baekhyun supposed having exclusive knowledge of every single horrific thing that will happen at some nondescript point in the future would set those with even the greatest mental fortitude on edge.

“Just out.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Byun,” he wasn’t messing around, clearly and Baekhyun started to feel more anxious than he had anticipated, “where are you going?”

“Why? Is there something you’re not telling me, Soo? Because if there is something I need to know...”

Kyungsoo paused for a moment before letting out a sigh and released the fairy from his iron grip.

“Look, Baekhyun. You know as much as I do that it just isn’t safe out there for us right now. You have an hour maximum before things start going downhill for Rhoslyn. What if you get caught up somehow? Or if Veronica and her people use this as their opportunity to pounce? What will we do then?”

He was right, Baekhyun supposed but he wasn’t about to spend his life like a chicken waiting to be slaughtered; for once, he had been handed an opportunity to act upon his own mistakes, to make something right and he wasn’t going to waste the chance.

“I’m sorry, Soo,” he truly was sorry but he felt he didn’t have a choice in the matter anymore, “this is something I have to do. I’ll be okay.”

He sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for Kyungsoo to locate his hand and hold onto it tightly. His hands were getting clammy. He hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake.

“And all for a boy,” Kyungsoo tutted in exasperation, “if only you had been this eager in coming after me.”

“First of all, how did you know I was going to look for Chanyeol?”

Kyungsoo glanced in his direction with a look of utter hopelessness on his face. Oh.

“Right…still! That’s beside the point. I didn’t come after you because I was young and dumb…”

“Being in your 50’s is not ‘young’, sweetheart,” Kyungsoo quipped with a cheeky grin, still clutching onto Baekhyun’s hand tightly.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun said with little vigour, “I am trying to be sentimental here. As I was saying; I didn’t come after you because I didn’t realise when I had something good when it was right in front of me.”

Kyungsoo tried to steel his face but couldn’t help the proud grin as it migrated across his face. Baekhyun gave him a light shove as a punishment for his conceitedness.

They sat in silence some more before, based on pure impulse, Baekhyun leaned across the section of bed still separating the pair and placed a lingering kiss on Kyungsoo’s forehead, relishing in the way the other man relaxed under him. When he pulled away, both men were smiling.

“You know,” Kyungsoo said, “this whole ‘love’ thing really loses its sparkle when I know where those lips have been.”

Baekhyun chose not to indulge Kyungsoo’s teasing and instead tried to hold back tears. Luckily, this time, they were happy tears.

“I loved you, Soo. I really did. You were my entire world. You still are, honestly. Even though you refuse to do your own washing and don’t obey the tagging system I use on your clothes…”

“You’re ruining it.”

They both chuckled over the top of their tearful sniffles. There is no parallel universe in which the two men could have had even an ounce of animosity between each other. It didn’t seem at all plausible.

“I have to go and get him, Soo. I can’t lose something like this again.”

He sought Kyungsoo’s face for some kind of understanding and, though he struggled to locate it in his eyes that stared off into a future realm only the soothsayer could locate, he did find it in his friend’s soft smile.

“Go get ‘em tiger!”

Baekhyun leapt from the bed in excitement, placing one last peck on Kyungsoo’s cheek for good measure.

“Oh! I almost forgot,” he rooted around in the pockets of his obscenely large jacket and eventually pulled out a tiny vial, containing a red liquid.

He held onto Kyungsoo’s hands and placed the bottle directly into his hands.

“This is a bottle of my blood.”

“Erm…I’m not a vampire, Baek.”

“No, stupid. It’s my _blood._ You were the one who asked me what to do if I don’t come back on time. Well, there is your answer. Honestly, I expected more of you.”

Kyungsoo sighed in outrage, “alright, alright. I understand. But…you want me to transfer the bond? To myself? I mean, I’d be happy to. Just…Isn’t that a little extreme, Baek?”

“It’s just a precaution. Just don’t let it out of your sight.”

Kyungsoo scoffed, “if anyone else had made that joke, I’d have pummelled them into the ground.”

Baekhyun merely laughed cheekily before skipping off out the door, “bye bye, babe! I’m off to find my prince charming!”

“Wait!” Kyungsoo called out before Baekhyun was out of ear shot. The fairy whipped his head around the door, far too excited and full of anticipation to wait too much longer, “take Daisy with you…please. For me.”

“But…”

“No buts. You don’t take the dog, you don’t go. It’s that simple.”

Baekhyun skulked back into the room to wake the slumbering dog and put her on her lead, not the vest she usually wore when she was working. Baekhyun reckoned even dogs needed their fair amount of time off. This would be a mere relaxing excursion for her.

“Daisy, your master is a right bossy pants.”

The dog barked. Baekhyun liked to think it was in agreement.

 

 

The night felt even colder than it had just an hour ago, even with the thick padded coat Baekhyun was wearing. He thought that, if Daisy’s lead had cut into his freezing cold hands for much longer, he would have had to sent her back.

He was mostly thankful, however, that Yixing had opted to take the wards down for the night and to reset them the next morning; it made sneaking out much, much easier.

Given that he had literally just kicked Chanyeol out with nowhere to go, he Baekhyun wasn’t entirely sure what he was even looking for. He had no real destination in mind and all he knew for sure was that Chanyeol couldn’t have gone far.

Where would a man with little to no money and his equally as broke friend spend the night in Glastonbury? The selection of quaint hotels in the town seemed highly unlikely so Baekhyun, instead, opted for the nearest B&B which was just a short walk through the grounds of the church a few minutes’ walk from the shop’s courtyard.

The night was eerily quiet without the usual hustle and bustle of the town’s visitors and residents. He felt a shiver run through his spine as though a ghost had passed right through him. He was in a churchyard, he supposed, who else would he be in the company of if not ghosts.

In his sleep-deprived state, he was sure he could hear the quiet utterances of a group of people but he soon shook this paranoid thought out of his mind. Ghosts may be real but they certainly can’t speak, let alone converse.

The further he encroached upon the churchyard, he could have sworn the voices were getting louder and were even accompanied by the rustling of the leaves on the ground. This was peculiar given the stillness of the air which was preparing to stir up the next big storm.

“Stop being pathetic, Byun.” He snapped to himself, focusing on the noises he and Daisy were making instead of the noises in his imagination.

But when the dog started to bark, his entire body froze.

“Daisy, shush,” he knelt down to pet the dog, desperately trying to calm her down. Her agitation was hardly helping to quash his own raging nerves.

“Hey there!”

A voice called out from the darkness and Baekhyun froze to his spot on the ground. He hastily covered Daisy’s mouth in the hopes that she wouldn’t bark and that the stranger in the churchyard would leave him unharmed.

Sadly, he wasn’t so lucky.

“Baekhyun, right?”

Baekhyun began to tremble. He’d had it.

A silhouette emerged from the shadows of the church and, to Baekhyun’s simultaneous surprise and utter horror, the figure was that of a middle-aged man. He was well over 6 feet tall, clad in just jeans and a t-shirt even in the freezing cold weather. It was hard not to take note of his steel-capped boots.

“We were hoping we’d bump into you here. I was starting to think you’d stood us up,” he said almost jovially, as though he and Baekhyun were long lost friends. His accent was also notably one of thick, North Welsh origin. When he was a child, Baekhyun’s had been rather similar given the village he grew up in.

“Erm…who are you exactly?” Baekhyun pondered, using half of his energy to steel his voice while using the other half to pin Daisy to his side. He was glad he’d brought her after all. He’d be even more terrified if he were alone.

“Ah, kid, don’t worry about that! I’m a friend of a friend and I’ve brought along my friends,” he turned to face the church and called out to his mysterious friends, “come on out, lads! Our fairy friend has arrived.”

The toothy smile he shot Baekhyun was dripping with pure evil.

 _Shit!_ Baekhyun’s mind and body were racing with adrenaline. He had to run. He had to get out of there. He had no idea who these people were and they certainly weren’t Veronica’s cronies but one thing was for certain; they were going to have him for breakfast.

One by one, people began to spill out of the church. There were men, women, old, and young. They were all vaguely familiar but, then again, most people looked the same to Baekhyun. Humans had never been of much interest to him anyway.

He tried to discreetly shuffle backwards on his arse. He sneakily let go of Daisy so that she didn’t feel able to bolt away from him and he advanced back towards the road. Once he was there, someone would surely spot him and help him, wouldn’t they?

Once again, he was completely out of luck and a dark figure loomed above him.

“Hello, Baekhyun.”

He recognised that voice. It was the voice of a woman. An old woman at that but the dulcet tones ignited a sort of nostalgia in him that sent a shiver up his spine.

“Sarah!?” He froze once again. The young girl from his childhood was now an old woman and, as though destroying his life once wasn’t enough for her, she seemed to want seconds.

“Yes,” she smiled with such sweetness that Baekhyun almost believed for a second that she didn’t want to kill him, “how’s dear Kyungsoo? Just as repulsive as ever, I suppose.”

“You _bitch!”_ Spittle flew out of Baekhyun’s mouth as the woman stared down at him as though he were her next meal. “He’s fine. Fucking _blind_ , though, thanks to you, you evil bat!”

She laughed from deep inside of her, a proper belly laugh.

“Is that so, deary? Well, I’m glad to hear that!” She sounded overjoyed in a way that made acid rise in Baekhyun’s throat.

Before he had the chance to react, a strong hand grabbed at the collar of his coat, pulling so hard that he made him choke. He grasped desperately at his throat as it began to constrict.

“I see you’ve met my son, Richard,” Sarah said as she pointed to the man before as he wrapped his thick arm around Baekhyun’s body.

Daisy began to howl in terror. Baekhyun could only scrunch his eyes tightly shut and hope that this was just a horrible nightmare, unable to so much as scream.

Then more footsteps approached.

One pair of footsteps came to a halt to his side where Daisy was sitting. Baekhyun tried to whip his head around to see what the individual was doing but couldn’t force the aggressive hands away from himself.

Then Daisy’s howls turned into a pained whine as the feet collided with the side of her body. As much as Baekhyun tried to call her back, he couldn’t force a sound out.

Now he was really alone.

“Now that ugly mutt is out the way,” another voice said from in front of Baekhyun, “we can get rid of you once and for all.”

Baekhyun writhed and wriggled as much as he could, flinging himself with all of his strength at the body pressed against him but to no avail. His human form just wasn’t strong enough.

“See,” the same voice said as another dozen or so people began to crowd around him, “we were going to let you go. After all, you weren’t any bother to us hanging out with all the freaks 'round here.”

There came a chorus of nods and hums of agreement from the small crowd that had gathered.

Baekhyun was trying not to listen and was instead channelling all of his attention towards morphing into his fairy form. He felt the transition began to happen when another voice spoke up.

“But then we spoke to a friend of ours. We think you know him,” Sarah said frankly.

Another burly man dragged a relatively young man out to stand in front of Baekhyun. The man looked thoroughly exhausted, the black bags under his eyes so prominent that they aged him about 10 years than he surely was.

Baekhyun was sure he knew that face.

“I think you know Emmet Lee, here,” the burly man stated.

Baekhyun felt another burst of adrenaline due to a combination of the shock and the additional power beginning to make its way into his bloodstream. Yet he still couldn’t force the words out of his throat. Instead, he just spat out incoherent choking sounds.

He was face-to-face with the father of his child yet he couldn’t say a thing. What was even stranger was that the child’s mother was not with him.

Sarah piped up again with words laced with venom, “see, being a freak of nature we may tolerate, as long as it doesn’t happen in our village but child abduction?”

Baekhyun began to scream in protest but couldn’t. The desperation to do so was suffocating.

He also noticed that Emmet Lee was in a similar state of panic but, as soon as he went to open his mouth, the silver glint of a pocket knife was pressed lightly into his back. He closed his lips immediately but the sweat pouring from his pale forehead said enough.

Emmet Lee didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to see his daughter’s guardian dead.

“Your heinous actions destroyed a family, Baekhyun,” Sarah relentlessly went on, “did you ever stop to think about what happened to Rhoslyn’s mother after you _stole_ her child?”

Baekhyun met Emmet’s eyes, chills shaking his body at the way it felt like he was looking right into Taemin’s eyes. He and the Lee’s were surely hexed to have faced such misfortune. The man’s eyes were trying to tell him something Baekhyun wished he could read.

“She killed herself, Baekhyun.”

The statement delivered so bluntly knocked the wind out of Baekhyun but it did give him enough of a release to fully transform which he did in the blink of an eye.

His wings shot out of his back with the force of five burly men and knocked his capture to the ground. His eyes blackened, his skin tore to reveal his bulging veins, and his sharp teeth tore through his gums sending a thrilling shock through the crowd around him.

Emmet Lee forced a small smile.

“Oh, my dear,” Sarah blubbed, “does that make you sad?”

“You’re lying.”

The crowd laughed. All except Emmet who seemed, if he didn’t speak soon, he would burst.

Then he snapped.

“She is! She is lying!” Emmet screamed, desperate to be heard, “they have kidnapped her! They are lying to you! You have to help us, Baekhyun. Please help…”

He was cut off mid-sentence as a knife was lodged into his back. Baekhyun stifled a scream (it wouldn’t have helped at all) and averted his gaze so as not to see the man writhing on the ground in pain.

“Such a crying shame,” Sarah pouted as three of the men dragged Emmet’s convulsing body away from Baekhyun’s line of sight.

“Did Veronica put you up to this?” Baekhyun growled as his powers affected even his voice.

“No,” Sarah seemed genuinely shocked, “I heard from my niece that she and her friends spoke to someone called Veronica Something to help locate you…”

 _The girls from the shop_ , he thought with frustration, t _hat bitch Veronica completely threw me off their scent!_

“But this is personal, Byun.”

“Personal?!” He growled, “How is this fucking personal!?”

She scoffed as all but one of the men around them headed back towards the church. Sarah’s son remained.

“You seriously don’t know?”

Baekhyun looked on incredulously.

“You, Baekhyun,” she charged up to him with the biggest balls Baekhyun had ever seen and pulled him up by the hair, her only advantage being the shock factor, “stole my first love from me.”

“I…I did what?”

“Don’t _pretend,_ Byun! Everybody knows that Kyungsoo loved you! He always loved you but he never loved me!” She started to cry. She was really ugly when she cried.

“Sarah, I don’t...”

“No! No, Byun! Shut up! I’ve had it with you and your games. Why do the prettiest ones always have the most blood on their hands, hey?”

She dropped him and gestured towards her son to pass her something Baekhyun couldn’t see. He used this as his opportunity to pounce.

Just as he was about to leap into the air, he felt a foggy haze fall over him as a powder floated above his head. The world began to spin and his body turned to jelly.

“If you’d have stayed in your human form,” he faintly heard Sarah’s muffled voice as he lost consciousness, “this would have been so much harder. Thank you, Baekhyun.”

 _Silver_ , he thought, mentally scolding himself for being so stupid. They had really outdone him.

Then the world went black and his limp body smacked onto the cold hard ground.

He had lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mope. That was all Chanyeol could do that night. He wasn’t in the right headspace for much else.

As much as Jongin had attempted to make him eat or drink, he refused to do either and instead opted to sit on the bench outside the B&B in town. He couldn’t sleep from the way his head was pounding and was gagging for fresh air.

The sporadic distraction from random passers-by who had their own reasons for being out at such a late hour provided little to rid Chanyeol of the thoughts scratching at his mind.

Baekhyun had left him.

He had been kicked out without so much as a proper goodbye and it hurt like hell.

It was like he was grieving given the suddenness of the whole situation; one minute they were curled up in each other’s arms with barely a care in the world. Chanyeol was basking in the warmth of the man he knew he loved, breathing in the flower scent that was _so him_ that it made Chanyeol’s entire body churn with white heat, kissing each other so intensely that it knocked the breath out of Chanyeol’s lungs.

Chanyeol reckoned he could draw a map of the inside of Baekhyun’s mouth and the back of his pristine hands. Yet, he couldn’t look into his eyes. That hurt the most given that the fairy’s eyes were so dynamic in their beauty, never the same from one hour to the next.

Only a few hours after the loveliest day of Chanyeol’s life, Baekhyun was gone.

It was as though there had been a death in his life with the way the fairy was just completely sucked out of his life with little hope of returning. Chanyeol wondered if he would go through all the stages of grief while sat on that cold, wet bench. He didn’t think he would ever be able to fill the chasm in his chest where his heart used to beat, filled to the brim with love and life and…Baekhyun.

He didn’t feel like crying. He didn’t have the energy to cry. Besides, he didn’t feel sad as much as he did numb. Just completely numb, as though he were just a shell of a person, someone who had forgotten what it was like to feel something. Anything. 

And that was all after but three hours alone.

He should have felt stupid, really, for enabling someone else to have such a hold over his life. He had relied far too much on the other man for his own happiness and Kyungsoo had warned him of as much. Maybe having his heart ripped out of his chest served him right; he had to learn to manage on his own at some point but Baekhyun just made it so _easy._ He was so easy to love in a way that made Chanyeol feel as though he was diving from a cliff, not even needing to be pushed, as he catapulted towards an unknown that just looked so _enticing._

Now he had hit the bottom, he couldn’t help but feel he was better off. The only way was up from there and maybe he would just have to crawl back on his own.

Some things just aren’t for life and maybe Baekhyun was one of those things. Chanyeol had learned so much from him and had found happiness in him and that was something no one could take away from him. He would be grateful for the few months that Baekhyun had given him for the rest of his life.

He decided it didn’t matter to him if Baekhyun felt the same way, as long as the fairy knew he had been loved to Chanyeol’s absolute capacity.

Just as he was about the drag his tired, cold body from where he was sitting to head inside, he heard footsteps emerging from the darkness.

It didn’t take long before he recognised the dog they belonged to.

“Daisy?” He asked in confusion, baffled as to why the dog was out of the shop, let alone what made Kyungsoo allow her out of his room in the first place.

The dog seemed distressed as she bounced around the ground at Chanyeol’s feet, nudging his legs with great power, whining at him as she did so.

“What’s wrong, girl?” He asked as he knelt down on the ground to take a closer look at her. She wasn’t injured but she did have mud on her underside which somewhat resembled the toe of a boot. “Daisy where’s Baekhyun?”

He did feel a little guilty that the fairy was the first person to enter his mind, especially when Daisy wasn’t even his dog but he couldn’t help it; something was very, very wrong and he had a one-track mind.

Daisy started to push his body towards the street in the direction where she came with her nose, she almost succeeded in pushing him over before Chanyeol remembered his friend in the building next to them.

“Daisy, I need to go and find Jongin you just…” he searched his mind to remember the way that Kyungsoo and Baekhyun made the dog stay in place before simply putting his arms out and backing away from her, “stay there, girl. I’ll be five seconds.”

He bolted up the stairs of the B&B, expecting to find Jongin fast asleep in bed but was instead greeted by the man staring out of the window onto the street.

As soon he saw Chanyeol bounding into the room, he started to fumble, “I wasn’t watching you I swear I was just…”

“I don’t care, Jongin!” Chanyeol was panting aggressively, “something is wrong – like, really wrong – I think Baekhyun is in trouble and I need _you_ to go and tell Kyungsoo…”

“What!? But, but, where are you going? Don’t be stupid, Yeol,” he was laughing anxiously, “we can go to the shop in the morning. I think you need to sleep…”

“Don’t argue with me, Jongin. Just do as I say!”

Then he ran back down the stairs and out of the shop.

“Come on then, Daisy,” he said with a new found resolve, “show me the way.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh. One more Chapter to go.


	20. Part Four - War of Hearts

Jongin took a deep breath before stepping over the threshold into the courtyard; the last time he had done so, he had gotten quite the shock (literally) and he wanted to make sure his eyebrows weren’t about to be fried off.

Luckily for him, the deadly force around the area had been disabled and, before he had the chance to panic and turn back out onto the street, he was knocking on the shop door.

He was greeted by the tattooed man from before. He didn’t remember his name but he didn’t need to in order to feel the blood rush away from his trembling hands in shock.

“What?” Was all he said, very aggressively. In any other circumstance, Jongin may have told him just how rude he was being but he decided against.

“H-hello,” he gave a pathetic little wave, “I’m Jongin. You know, from before?”

The terrifying man rolled his eyes, “what’s your point? It’s four o’clock in the morning and I have every justification to kick your sorry arse out of here.”

“Hey!” A voice called from behind the door in a scolding tone, “at least hear him out first!”

The scary man stepped aside to allow the other man to step out. Jongin started to wish he had bolted after all.

“Nice to meet you…again! I’m Yixing. Is everything alright?”

Jongin vaguely remembered the man from the last time his sorry life had brought him to the bizarre shop and he felt his muscles relax a little. At least he didn’t look like he was capable of murder.

“Erm...well, no, actually,” he looked sheepish as though he were in the wrong somehow though, admittedly, he couldn’t shake the thought that he sort of was.

Both men in the door raised their eyebrows as a signal for him to carry on.

“See, I think that Baekhyun is in trouble and…”

“WHAT?!” Yixing immediately stepped aside and the other man pulled Jongin over the threshold and into the shop.

“I swear if you’ve done anything…” the tattooed man roared as he forced Jongin up against the nearest wall blocking his airways with a thick forearm across his neck.

“I haven’t! I haven’t, I swear! I swear on my life I would never.”

The man did not seem convinced in the least.

“Junmyeon, stop,” Yixing pleaded, tugging at his arm until he released Jongin.

They stood in a nervously charged silence until Yixing squeezed Junmyeon’s arm and headed towards the back of the room.

“I’m going to get Soo.”

The man he returned with was quite possibly the most frantic, frazzled individual Jongin had ever seen and it made his heart clench. He didn’t think he’d noticed the man – Soo, was it? – last time he was at the shop.

_I could never forget a face as beautiful as that,_ he thought before chastising himself for the inappropriate timing.

“What’s going on?” The man’s voice seemed breathless and he looked terrible.

_He’s only just woken up._

Jongin spoke up again with much less confidence than before, “I don’t know exactly but Chanyeol has gone to look for Baekhy-…”

“What time is it?”

Yixing looked at a clock crafted from oak on the wall, “it’s 4:15 why?”

“That idiot!” He cried running his hands through his hair frantically, “Shit! Rhoslyn! Where is the vial?!”

He was met with confused silence.

“Fucking hell!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, all the emotions in the world gushing out of his body, “Where is the vial of Baekhyun’s blood?!”

Yixing made a noise of understanding and went running towards the stairs. Jongin was glad someone knew what the frantic man was talking about.

It was all in vain, however, and he was stopped in his tracks by a figure emerging from the back door.

“Is this what you are looking for, Kyungsoo?”

The figure was cloaked in darkness, only the billowing cloak that pooled around their feet catching the moonlight.

Slowly, the light emerged upwards as the figure moved towards the small group, inch by inch revealing an emerald gown, draped with shimmering ginger hair.

_Veronica._

The room remained in stunned silence as the towering, pale, _oh-so-evil_ woman stood before them, rolling a tiny bottle of blood around in her slender hands, every so often clicking the glass against her long red nails. That, the ticking of the clock, and the sound of the rain falling outside would surely haunt Jongin forever.

“Get the fuck out of here before I have to kick you out!” Kyungsoo spat, obviously knowing that the haunting woman had what he needed.

She just laughed at him, a laugh far too beautiful for such a conniving woman.

“Oh, my dear. No need to shout,” she mocked him which only riled him up more so that the blood shot up to the bulging veins in his head.

“Where the fuck is he?”

“And why would I tell you that?” She snarled, “I’m not here to help you, dear. Quite the contrary.”

She smiled a dazzlingly beautiful smile. It felt so wrong that it made Jongin’s hairs stand on end. It was so very easy to fall for her charm.

“You see, dear Kyungsoo,” she carried on as she glided towards him like a killer cat on the prowl, “I haven’t done anything to Baekhyun. He has a long list of enemies to do that for me.”

“Then why the fuck are you here?” If looks could kill, Veronica would be dust on the ground as six eyes bored in to here. She remained unperturbed.

“Why?” She smiled up to her ears once more and raised her enrobed arms up to the sky, the vial precariously balanced between thumb and forefinger.

“I’m here to see the show, of course!”

Like a flash, she let go of the bottle and the world went into slow motion as it cascaded to the ground, smashing on impact. The momentum sent splatters of blood across the room and tiny granules of glass fell at Veronica’s bare feet.

“Whoops…”

“I’m going to fucking kill you!!” Kyungsoo said with such conviction as he went for Veronica with clenched fists.

He had seen red. He was crying, breathing heavily, and completely disorientated but he knew what he was doing. He traipsed through the shattered glass, unperturbed as it pierced the soles of his feet. Then he went for her neck.

“You’ve pushed your luck way too many times,” he spat in her face as her smug façade began to give way to genuine fear. She knew as well as the rest of them that Kyungsoo was out for blood.

“Where is he?!”

Veronica just smiled and clenched her hand around Kyungsoo’s own, pushing it even further into her throat, surely cutting off most of her air supply.

_Fucking psychopath,_ Jongin thought as he watched the scene unfold in awe.

“I will kill you if you don’t tell me.”

“You don’t have the guts,” Veronica choked out around the obvious burning sensation in her throat, “you were always pathetic. So lost. Following Baekhyun around like some lost puppy. You’re nothing without him. You’re no one because the world doesn’t need someone like you. You’re just excess baggage. And certainly far too pathetic to kill me.”

She sounded so sure but Jongin very clearly saw the way Kyungsoo’s hands began to whiten from the force of his fist, squeezing, squeezing, and squeezing some more at Veronica’s paling throat.

“Baekhyun is going to die tonight. Rhoslyn is going to die tonight. And you’ll just rot away in this house. Alone.” She grinned sadistically and pushed Kyungsoo’s hand even tighter against her jugular as her insane eyes bulged, “It’s just a shame he never loved you before he went.”

Kyugnsoo used all of his remaining force to push her against the worktop to her rear, knocking books, trinkets, and glass ornaments all over the ground. The sound of shattering glass pierced through the room.

“Do it.”

Veronica was so sure that he wouldn’t. Jongin knew that he could.

Kyungsoo hesitated for a second, briefly loosening her from his grip and Veronica looked so smug. But he was just getting ready, ready to finish her off.

He must have broken her neck with the way he jerked her to the side as he clenched around her throat. It wasn’t a pretty death, nor was it painless, but it was quick. She struggled briefly, grabbing at Kyungsoo’s nightshirt in desperation but it was a fruitless effort; Kyungsoo was killing her and the men in the room watched as the light in her eyes blew out.

For all her aloofness in life, her death was tragic and resembled that of a chicken in a slaughterhouse, with its only destiny being to have its neck snapped.

Kyungsoo may never have let her go, completely dissociated from the rest of the world, possibly unaware of what he was even doing.

It took Junmyeon pulling him away to make him finally let go and to emerge from the trance he was in. Yixing caught Veronica’s limp body and lay it gently on the ground. He took her pulse and, when he discovered there was no life left in her, he nodded sadly in confirmation.

She was gone forever but it was such a bitter death; it isn’t even as though it would save Baekhyun’s life.

“Where is the vial?” Kyungsoo asked as though he were on autopilot.

Yixing stood up and rushed over to him, pulling him into a hug as Kyungsoo’s entire body trembled.

“It’s gone, Soo,” Junmyeon admitted as he assessed the damage in the shop. It looked as though a tornado had ripped through it.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Kyungsoo sobbed into Yixing’s shoulder and Jongin felt a stray tear roll down his own cheek at the sorry sight before him.

He scanned briefly over the ground. Veronica’s body made bile rise in his throat as he noted the eeriness of a corpse; she was just an empty vessel without life in her yet she looked almost exactly the same. Her life had vanished as easily as a flame is blown out and, no matter who she was or what she had done, the thought alone was horrifying enough.

As was the view of Baekhyun’s blood slowly rolling across the ground forming viscous red wells in the cracks in the floorboards.

It was like staring as Rhoslyn’s own blood. She would die now because her father was gone and Kyungsoo couldn’t transfer the bond to himself. He was powerless.

That was when Jongin spotted the bottom half of the glass, broken off from the rest of the vial and still holding a pool of blood.

He charged towards it and gathered it gently into his hands.

“Just give up, Jongin,” Junmyeon ordered, “it’s over.”

_It can’t be,_ he thought as he looked at Kyungsoo’s blood-shot eyes. There was no way that it was over.

He thought about taking the vial to Kyungsoo. He could drink the blood, transfer the bond and save Rhoslyn.

A _nd then what?_

Well, Jongin supposed that Kyungsoo would just spend the rest of Rhoslyn’s life in the shop. Alone. Without Baekhyun. He would wait for her to die and then move on. Alone.

_We can’t have that._

He raised the vial to his lips, grimacing at the scent of iron as it wafted into his sensitive nostrils.

_It won’t taste that bad,_ he decided, _it will just taste like a papercut._

“Jongin, what are you doing!?” Yixing sounded horrified as he watched Jongin make the most outrageous decision of his entire life.

He just ignored the voices yelling at him to stop and poured the blood directly down his throat. It did not taste like a papercut.

Before he could even swallow it fully, he felt his body rush with warmth as though he had just stepped off an aeroplane on a tropical island. His face heated up as though he were aflame and he felt the life inside of him bubble over like never before.

He looked up to see Kyungsoo gawping over to him in awe, obviously aware of what was happening.

Jongin had saved Rhoslyn’s life.

“You are such an idiot,” Kyungsoo said through a mixture of a sob and an astonished laugh whilst Yixing and Junmyeon looked on in horror.

“Guess we’re roommates, now.”

 

 

Chanyeol swore that the churchyard was colder than the surrounding street and he wrapped his hoodie tightly around his body just to trap some of his body heat.

He was still diligently following Daisy as she sniffed around the grass to trace Baekhyun. Though Chanyeol had confidence in her ability to sniff out danger, he was becoming a little impatient at how long it was taking.

Had she not started to make a beeline for the church itself he might have turned around and left.

“Okay, Daisy. Lead the way.” He said as his voiced quaked with fear and his teeth chattered.

She stopped in front of the colossal oak doors and Chanyeol took a deep breath. His heart was beating erratically, utterly dreading what he would discover on the other side.

He forced the door open with one hand and held the other protectively in front of himself. A cold gust of wind hit him as he did so and blew out a solitary candle hanging above his head.

The church was freezing cold as the stone structure kept any heat well beyond its walls. The light from the moon streamed in through the stained-glass windows and revealed rows and rows of pews, each one completely void of any life.

“Daisy, why have you led me to an empty church?”

He shuddered as his voice echoed from the solid walls, reverberating in his ears in such an unpleasant way that he vowed not to speak again.

His footsteps also echoed around the room which was what alerted him to the puddle of water he had walked into. He followed the water trail across the floor until he met an overturned font which had toppled and spilt icy cold water.

It couldn’t have been there for long judging by the fact that it was still trailing across the ground, not yet having come to a stop.

_Someone has been in here tonight._

With new found conviction, Chanyeol continued to walk through the church, about to head up the winding stone steps emerging from the enormous structure upon which the tabernacle stood. Until he heard voices emerging from the sacristy.

The voices were only faint but the gold-plated door leading to the sacred room was slightly ajar.

Chanyeol gently forced the door open, not wanting to alert anyone behind it to his presence. Slowly but surely, the voices became clearer.

“Do you have the knife?” A woman’s voice asked.

“What for, mom? We were just going to shoot him, weren’t we?”

Chanyeol had to clasp his hand around his mouth to trap an audible gasp. It took all of his resolve not to bolt in there. He couldn’t be too hasty. It was far too risky.

“I need to cut his wings off, you ignoramus!”

An inhumane wail sounded from the room and Chanyeol’s ears began to pulse at the unpleasant sound.

_Baekhyun is still alive,_ he was relieved to discover.

Now he had the insurmountable task of saving his life.

He pushed the door open even more, gradually advancing into the room to discover a narrow nook in the wall which he could nip into. He did just that and witnessed the scene with his own eyes.

Baekhyun was there.

He was in his full fairy from and the sight made Chanyeol breathless.

A fool would have said he looked like a monster; his teeth like sharpened daggers were dripping with thick green venom, his eyes were twice their usual size and pooling with black, his wings were fanned out behind him and Chanyeol could barely appreciate their beauty given the circumstances. They, too, were jet black and incredibly skeletal but undoubtedly strong as they whipped back and forth, lifting Baekhyun’s unclothed, restrained body from the ground as much as the shackles that bound him would allow.

“If he still has wings, he can still get out,” the woman huffed as she snatched the knives from the man and headed for Baekhyun.

The fairy wailed like a banshee once again, clearly in distress. It made Chanyeol’s heart clench but he needed to decide what to do before just barging in there. Baekhyun’s life was at stake.

“Will you shut up?!” The man bellowed, kicking Baekhyun in his side and making him whimper.

Chanyeol made a barely audible noise in the back of his throat, vicariously responding to Baekhyun’s immense pain. He thought that he was surely caught then.

To his immense relief, the man and woman didn’t notice him and continued to bicker.

But Baekhyun noticed.

The fairy lifted his head from staring helplessly at the ground and met Chanyeol’s blown eyes, wide with panic.

It _was_ like staring into the face of a monster, honestly and Chanyeol couldn’t help the way sweat began to pool in his hands. He wanted to scream but the slither of life left in Baekhyun’s eyes as thick, slimy tears streamed from his eyes reminded Chanyeol that the man he loved was still in there somewhere and he needed Chanyeol more than ever.

They locked eyes for a moment longer before Baekhyun jerked his head to the side of himself.

Chanyeol scrunched his eyes up in confusion until Baekhyun did it again. And again. He jerked to the same place repeatedly until Chanyeol looked across the room and spotted a huge shotgun, perched intimidatingly against a red velveteen chair. It was clearly used for a lot more than shooting pigeons.

Chanyeol got the message and began to sidestep towards the gun, planning to grab the gun and aim it at the pair before he was spotted.

In order to make his task easier, Baekhyun began kicking up a storm; he wailed, he screamed, he thrashed, he rattled his chains and he kicked out at the man and woman before his feet.

Their attention was torn away from the petty argument and they immediately made for Baekhyun, kicking him, spitting at him, hurling awful words at him which Chanyeol barely recognised. He was out for blood, however, and the pain was a small price to pay to watch these fuckers die.

Chanyeol was so close to the gun. It was practically in his hands before he stumbled and knocked into the chair.

The commotion in the room came to halt.

He froze, as did Baekhyun. The man and woman whipped their heads around to face him.

In retrospect, Chanyeol wished he’d noticed the gun hooked into the man’s leather belt beforehand. Then he may have been a bit more careful.

It felt like hours but it was likely only a second before the world started to fade away. He saw double, then triple, and then it seemed as though every sight he had ever seen was piling one by one on top of one another, entirely overwhelming his mind as it faded in and out of consciousness, all until but one image remained.

He saw Baekhyun.

It was from the first night they had spent together. It felt like a lifetime ago that they had laid on the mattress on the floor of Baekhyun’s room but it would take a thousand lifetimes for Chanyeol to forget the smile Baekhyun had offered him then.

Baekhyun was so beautiful that night. His black hair had glistened in the moonlight and Chanyeol’s heart had danced. His soft lips felt like rose petals on Chanyeol’s own. His entire existence set fire to Chanyeol’s insides.

Chanyeol loved Baekhyun. He loved him more than the moon loved the stars.

This was the reason why he smiled blissfully even as the bullet lodged itself into his chest.

 

 

Legend has it that fairies are among the evillest creatures to have ever existed. Certainly, the worst to walk the earth.

Man would rue the day he felt the wrath of a fairy.

This is precisely why humankind has lived in grave fear of the species of the fae since the dawn of time.

Families have passed down legends of the fairy folk from generation to generation. Fairies are conniving, fairies are manipulative, and fairies are unable to feel. Fairies steal, fairies kill, and fairies suck the life out of undeserving people. Fairies are far too evil to live among the superior race.

Had any of these people actually met a fairy – which most of us undoubtedly have – they would know for certain that none of this is true. Fairies can love, fairies can care, fairies feel deeply. Fairies are no more evil than the humans who try to wipe them out.

Had these same people witnessed Baekhyun’s actions the night of Chanyeol’s death, however, they would have seen first hand what happens when a fairy falls so very deeply in love. They would have also believed one and for all that fairies are dastardly creatures.

After all, Baekhyun did tear his captors limb from limb. It was a bloody scene. He left their bodies unsalvageable like the monster they had written him off as long ago would have surely done.

It was what they deserved.

He avenged the death of his mother. The death of his mother’s friend. His best friend’s loss.

He avenged the possible death of his daughter whom he loved so very much. The daughter he would have given the world to watch grown into a beautiful woman. The daughter he would give his own life for.

He avenged the death of the man he loved.

He surprised even himself with his immense strength. It is surprising how powerful an emotion grief can be, what it can do to a person. Even to a fairy.

 

One thing fairies have that humans do not, however, is time. Time that flows in a way inconceivable to humankind because it operates in a dimension humankind cannot access.

Baekhyun knew that Chanyeol still had time.

Their story was not over yet.

He still had the chance to love Chanyeol, to live a long life together.

It was with a heavy heart that he came to the decision to leave his life on earth to save Chanyeol’s life. There was nothing more he could do for the people he loved.

The bond he had with Rhoslyn was already severed.

The pain which he inflicted upon Kyungsoo had been healed with the right amount of closure.

All he had left to do was to make sure Chanyeol didn’t lose his life because of him.

With a prodigious amount of conviction, Baekhyun swept Chanyeol’s limp, lifeless body up into his arms and flew away. He flew out of the church, out of the churchyard, away from the town he called home, away from the life he had built there with all the confidence in the universe that the people he loved would carry onwards without him.

He shot out of the stratosphere and headed straight for the Orion constellation.

 

 

Chanyeol awoke much later at a time he could not sense because he had awoken in a place where time did not exist.

He was lying prostrate on a bed of flowers; radiant and beautiful unlike any he had ever seen before but undoubtedly the work of one fairy he knew so well. The atmosphere around him felt incomparable to that on earth, the sounds around him were unidentifiable to him, and his entire Self felt both dislodged and perfectly placed at the same time.

The one thing that hadn’t changed, however, was Baekhyun.

The fairy stared down from where he knelt at Chanyeol’s side and smiled at him. Warm tears dripped down his contorted face and Chanyeol knew he had never seen anything so beautiful. He lifted his hands to cup his lover’s cheeks and rid them of any signs of sadness.

He caught a glimpse of the way the veins in his arms bulged, deep blue waves ebbing and flowing, pulsing with a warm energy that he knew for sure was life Baekhyun had pumped into back into him. Life from his own veins.

“Welcome home, Chanyeol.”

 

Back on earth, a now much older Rhoslyn watched on as Jongin guided Kyungsoo’s hand as he held it in his own, directing him towards the Orion constellation. For, one day in the past at a nondescript time, a new star had appeared in the sky and it had pulsated brighter than the others ever since.

“Welcome home, dad.”


	21. Asleep (Not a chapter update uwu)

_Sing me to sleep_  
_Sing me to sleep_

  
_I'm tired and I_  
_I want to go to bed_

 

_Sing me to sleep_  
_Sing me to sleep_

  
_And then leave me alone_  
_Don't try to wake me in the morning_  
_'Cause I will be gone_

  
_Don't feel bad for m_ _e_  
_I want you to know_  
_Deep in the cell of my heart_  
_I will feel so glad to go_

 

_Sing me to sleep_

  
_Sing me to sleep_

  
_I don't want to wake up_  
_On my own anymore_

_\- Asleep, The Smiths_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's over. That's weird. If you've read all of this then thank you. I know you probably read it for your own enjoyment and not for my gratification but I appreciate it very much anyway. I've literally never written anything like this ever in my whole entire life so if you have something to say (good/bad...kind/very kind) then please don't be shy :-P 
> 
> Thanks again for chilling in the product my brain sauce for a few hours. 
> 
> Bye,bye <3


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